Unlimited Eldritch Blade Works

By: Bubbajack

Beta/Coauthor: IcySnowSage

Disclaimer: We don't own shit. Disney owns Star vs, Typemoon owns their verse, HP Lovecraft owns his nightmares, and everyone else owns their own shit.

Ch.5: Chalice I.

Marco awoke to once again find Star laying on his chest. "Good morning Star."

Star opened her eyes blearily, and blinked at him owlishly for a moment before she graced him with a gigawatt smile and a kiss on the lips. "Morning Marco. Sleep well?"

The Questor nodded. "Yeah, you?"

The princess chuckled. "I dunno, my bed was kinda hard and lumpy," she joked as she hopped up and down on his stomach.

Marco rolled his eyes. "Well I'm sorry you find my rock hard abs uncomfortable Star. If you'd like, you could always swap places with someone else tonight."

"Never!" Star said, squeezing him tighter. "Marco's abs belong to me!"

In response, Marco tussled Star's golden locks. "Love you too Star. Umm, like yesterday though I kinda gotta go."

"Right!" Once again, Star transformed her wand into a megaphone and shouted into it. "Alright, everybody up, you know the drill!"

A collective groan was given, and Hekapoo, Chiyo, Oei, and Sakura all crawled out of the bed. "You really need to find a better way to wake us all up Butterfly," Hekapoo groused, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Why, when this works perfectly fine?" Star replied feigning innocence.

"Star-chan, please stop waking us up with a megaphone every morning. It makes for a stressful cooking environment," Sakura chided a glare in her eye and a pout on her face.

Now Star had the decency to look polite. "Sorry sensei, Marco had to go ya know? Gah! Marco Diaz stop that!"

"Don't try throwing me under the bus you!" Said boy retorted as he mercilessly tickled his girlfriend.

"Okay lovebirds, let's get ready for the day and let master do his business," Hekapoo chortled.

"Still gonna insist on calling me master huh H-poo?" Marco replied as he made his way out of their shared room."

"Still insisting on calling me H-poo, huh master?!" Hekapoo called as he left the room.

"Chiyo is so happy you and Marco get along so well," she said as she clapped her hands, shifting her form to that of a yellow spring dress.

Hekapoo snapped her fingers and in a flash of flame, she was dressed for the day in her usual maid attire. "Yeah, we're tight."

"Speaking of, could you tell me about what happened to Marco's arm?" Star questioned though it was less of a question and more of an order.

Hekapoo grimaced. "It's… it's complicated. All I can really tell you is that it has to do with a type of magic he learned while he was over there, and unlike yours his magic takes a physical toll on its user."

"Is it 'dark magic' dear?" The voice in the doorway was Eclipsa. She was dressed in her long black gown and had her feathered hat upon her head. The only piece of her ensemble missing was her long sleeved gloves which she no longer needed thanks to Marco's use of Rule Breaker on her person. Thus her arms were now pale and unblemished.

Hekapoo frowned. "Yes, you could call it that. It's darker than any spell you ever devised. Marco learned it not by choice, but by necessity. He did what he had to do to survive in my proving ground. His arm is what marks him in my dimension as a magician."

Eclipsa frowned. "That poor boy. He has my sympathies… though I do wonder why he doesn't just use that miraculous dagger on himself? It would fix him right up surely?"

"It's a reminder," Marco's voice came from behind the Queen of Darkness. "Of all the messed up things I had to do over there. I don't feel like I have the right to get rid of it."

Eclipsa turned to see Marco standing there in a bathrobe, his hair wet from the shower. "Ah, I see. I'm sorry dear boy, I didn't mean to pry."

Marco shook his head and smiled. "It's fine, don't worry about it." He looked to the girls who were looking uncomfortable. "Bathroom's free."

Sakura cleared her throat. "Yes, I think we should all freshen up a bit then get started on breakfast. Come on girls."

Everyone followed Sakura's lead but Hekapoo. "Sorry about that Marco, but Star asked, and I didn't know what to say…"

"It's fine Hekapoo, don't worry about it," Marco was looking at his mutated left arm as he spoke. "That place, something bad was going on there, I don't know what it was but… That chalice that thing. It's up to no good."

Hekapoo came over and sat on the edge of the bed. "Don't worry about the White Chalice Marco, it's not your problem anymore."

Marco turned and gave Hekapoo a haunted but inquisitive look. "What the hell is that thing Hekapoo? Something you devised a long time ago? An old monster that's going around fucking with people? The Devil?"

The former scissor crafter took a breath, sighed, and replied, "Remember how you said I could keep my secrets?" When Marco nodded, she continued. "This is one of those things. The only answer I feel comfortable giving you right now is… that it's kinda all of the above. I helped seal that thing away… but it's not staying gone. Is that… good enough?"

Slowly, Marco nodded. "For now H-poo. If you could only seal it does that mean it can't be killed?"

The demigoddess sighed. "Not by me at any rate, and not by you either before you get any bright ideas so please, Marco. For my sake. Leave. It. Alone."

The Questor stared at Hekapoo for a long moment before he nodded. "Okay, I'll leave it be, for now." He then raised a finger and added. "If this thing comes back to bite us in the ass somehow though H-poo, I'm gonna have to insist on more info."

The forge mistress sighed releasing a plume of flame from her mouth as she nodded. "Fair enough master, fair enough." She then darted in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, for listening to me."

Marco was momentarily shocked. There had always been a tension between himself and Hekapoo but he thought it was adversarial flirting not anything more. He even suspected her sleeping in his bed was just another game to her. Now? He wasn't so sure. "You're… You're welcome. You should get downstairs unless you want to miss your morning lesson with Sakura."

"True, seeya in a bit," Hekapoo left the room with a sashay in her hips.

"Well, that happened," Marco said to himself before he went to his closet and pulled out his satchels. He slung them around his waist like a cowboy would his gun holsters in the old west. Their weight was comfortable and familiar to him. 'I should just keep these on me, just in case,'

So thinking, he headed downstairs to start a new day.

Once he arrived he found that breakfast was in full swing. He peeked into the kitchen and saw that Sakura was instructing both Hekapoo and Star on how to make a traditional japanese breakfast. Rice, omelets, grilled fish, and miso soup. Since they were doing that, Marco busied himself with setting the table. By the time his parents, Francesca, and Natchios made their appearances once the table was set, he received a text from Janna saying she and Jackie were on their way, and breakfast was almost ready.

"Good morning dear," Francesca said, pecking him on the lips. "Sleep well despite being used as a mattress?"

"Just fine, though I need to find some way of getting out of bed to go to the bathroom without waking everyone up," he replied.

Francesca laughed, "Well, it's not like we have someone here who could transform the entire building into a comfortable mansion. Oh, wait…"

"I'll do it after breakfast!" Star called, "Which is almost ready by the way!"

"Ohh, what're we having?!" Rafael called excitedly as he entered the dining room.

"A Japanese style breakfast Rafael-san," Sakura said as she came through the kitchen door carrying several trays full of food.

The front door opened and Janna just let herself in like she owned the place. "Sup second family!"

"Janna how did you even… you have a copy of my key don't you?" Marco asked flatly.

"Your key, your soc number, finger, thumb prints, retina, you know all that good stuff," the newly minted witch affirmed.

Marco just shook his head and sighed. "You know you don't have to do all that now that you've confessed right?"

Janna just rolled her eyes. "Where would be the fun in that for me?" she then hugged him around the neck, "How are you doing stud?"

Marco placed his hands at the small of Janna's back. "Fine, you?"

Janna grinned. "Good. I took it easier than yesterday."

Marco looked past Janna to Jackie. "Hey Jackie, you doing okay?"

She smiled at him and sent him a wink. "Totally Diaz. You?"

Marco returned the grin. "Can't complain. You're both in time for breakfast like usual."

Jackie smirked. "We've only come over once."

Marco separated from Janna so he could give his other official girlfriend a hug. "Still, traditions, no matter how new, should be upheld don't you think?"

Jackie felt warm and safe in his arms, just like how she always felt. 'Do I really wanna give this up because our relationship would be a little unconventional?' She asked herself. She still wasn't sure if she was entirely honest. She had a lot to think about in all honesty.

"So, what're we having Diaz?" Janna jeered all but leering at the couple and getting his attention.

"A traditional Japanese breakfast Janna-san, since dinner went over so well, I figured I'd make breakfast too. I hope that's alright?" Sakura said kindly.

"Grilled fish and rice for breakfast? Cool!" Janna said with a grin.

Marco shook his head. Leave it to Janna to like anything out of the ordinary. Being the gentleman he was, he pulled out the chairs for each of the girls before he sat down. The spread on the table consisted of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, soft boiled eggs, and pickled vegetables.

Oie, Sakura, Francesca and Marco clapped their hands together before saying, "Itadakimasu!"

Star and the others mimicked their actions with the blonde asking after they were done, "What's that mean marco?"

"It's basically Japanese for thanks for the meal. It's thanking the chef for their hard work. So you, Sakura, and Hekapoo basically," he explained.

Star gave a gigawatt grin. "Well your welcome! I grilled the fish, with no magic I might add."

Marco took a bite of the fish and nodded. "Great job Star."

"Thank you my little mulberry," Star said, kissing his cheek.

"You've become quite the ladies man kiddo."

Marco turned around in his seat and just found Zelretch standing there behind him, grinning.

Marco nodded. "Zelretch you're just in time for breakfast. Would you like to sit down?"

The Dead Apostle Ancestor nodded appreciatively. "Don't mind if I do."

Marco held up a hand. "Before that though, I'd prefer it if, in the future, you'd knock on the front door and wait to be let in. It's rude to just come into someone's house without knocking you know?"

Zelretch's mouth fell open, and Sakura looked at Marco like he'd grown a second head. For one simply didn't talk to the Wizard Marshal like that. "Marco-sama?"

Then the third of the Dead Apostle Ancestors threw his head back and laughed. "Too right you are lad. You'll have to forgive an old man for forgetting about common courtesy, the mind is the first thing to go when you get to be my age you see?"

Marco quirked his eyebrow. "How old are you anyway?"

As the vampire sat himself down at the table, he tapped his chin. "Well, let's see, I was a young lad back when the Picts were migrating to what is now Germany which was in what now known as 275 BC… It's 2015 AD now, so that would make me two-thousand-two-hundred-ninety years old."

"You're older than the entire history of the Butterfly Dynasty," Star said in awe.

"Yeah, that little backwater dimension of yours hasn't had its kingdom around long though the magic is strong there," Zelretch commented offhandedly.

"Hey!" Star said, affronted.

He just laughed a bit. "I meant no real offense, it was more of a pondering, as to why the magic in your dimension is so strong when it is so young? Do your people still worship their gods Star Butterfly?"

"Gods?" Star pondered aloud. "I don't know about that, but we've always had the Magic High Commission, and the Stump."

Zelretch grinned and glanced Hekapoo's way, the Demigoddess squirmed uncomfortably. "I see. So your world has not yet met its twilight."

"And it won't if I have anything to say about it," Star said with surety.

The wizened old man managed to crack a smile. "You're amusing Star Butterfly I'll grant you that, and I suppose foreknowledge does grant its own sense of wisdom doesn't it?"

Star nodded. "It does."

"Oh right, I've been meaning to talk to you about that Star," Marco said to himself more than everyone else.

"Later dear," Star promised with a kiss to his cheek to seal the deal.

"Butterfly?" Hekapoo asked, sending the princess a look.

Star shook her head, "This is a need to know only, and since you're now just a maid, you don't need to know," Star finished by sticking out her tongue, only for Marco to nudge her in the arm and shake his head about how not to be too rude. Star thought better of it since she technically did murder Hekapoo and her entire family in the future that never will be.

He turned to Hekapoo and said, "We'll let you know if you need to know anything relevant H-poo."

The demigoddess sighed, "Fine, and don't call me that, master."

Marco turned back to Zelretch who was savoring both the food and the byplay between everyone present. "So you didn't come by for just chit-chat and breakfast did you? You've got a job for me right?"

Dabbing at his mouth with a napkin, the Deadapostle ancestor replied. "I do. If you're up for one so soon, that is."

He looked to his parents who smiled at him encouragingly and then Star, who nodded. "What's the job, and also, why can't you just fix these problems yourself? You seem kinda scarily powerful. So why do you even need me?"

The Wizard Marshall leaned back in his seat, hands folded on his chest. ""Well lad, to answer your second question first. My Magic has a serious drawback to it. I can watch realities, and see various outcomes, but if I personally step into one of those worlds and try to influence things then the world I step into becomes true for all of the parallel worlds."

"So you can look, but you can't touch? It's like being in the world's biggest art gallery but no matter how horrid the picture is if you change all the other paintings change. Some not for the best," Marco mused.

The True Magician nodded. "Exactly yes. That's why I need an agent, like you to protect certain worlds from falling to what is known as a quantum time lock. Think of it like pruning the limbs off a tree. When humanity as a species reaches a 'dead end' that timeline and parallel world gets cut off so it does not continue to needlessly advance. These worlds are called Lost Belts. I'm sending you in to prevent certain Lost Belts from even being created in the first place."

"Butterfly effect, I get it, I take out the main cause of what would end humanity in a timeline and the world gets to keep spinning," Marco nodded. "Where to first?"

"Tokyo, Japan," Zelretch replied. "There is an entity that if not stopped will soon, will transform the human race into others of its own species, thus creating a Lost Belt."

Marco took a breath. "Well, looks like I'm going to Japan then."

"We, you mean." Star piped up. Upon seeing his incredulous gaze she stared back. "What? Did you honestly think I'm going to let you out of my sight again anytime soon? Besides, you owe me about sixteen years worth of adventures, Mister Diaz." She retorted playfully poking him in his side with one finger.

"I… I dunno Star," Marco began hesitantly, "This isn't going to be like our usual adventures. I'm being sent in to stop a world ending event. That's kinda heavy."

Star nodded, her blue eyes resolute. "It is, and your right this is serious business. We've… got some things we need to talk about anyway Marco… in private," she emphasised. "No offense everyone." She told the table at large. Rounds of "None taken, and We get it,'' were given, and Star continued, "Besides, we've always had each other's backs, why stop now?"

'Okay, she's got a point,' Marco conceded. "Alright, you can come."

Star squeezed him for all he was worth and peppered his cheek with kisses. All while saying, "Thank you thank you thank you!"

"However, if I say run, please listen to me and run, or at the very least, get away and shoot the darn thing with Artemis' arrows Estrella Guía."

Star snuggled into his arm. "Can do my little mulberry."

"Mar-kun will be safe, yes?" Francesca asked as she fed Natchios her breakfast due to her trouble with chopsticks.

The Questor smiled at the Eldritch Witch, "I'll be fine Fresca, don't worry."

"Papa is strong, mama, don't worry," Natchios replied. "Besides, if Papa was in trouble, Natchios would know, and be right by his side, claws, fangs, and poison bared."

"Francesca is sure you would sweetheart, but how would you cross dimensions?" She asked as she offered her another piece of fish.

"Natchios has a bond with Papa. She knows if he's in danger or not," The dragoness replied, taking the offered bite and swallowing before continuing, "If I pull on that connection," Suddenly, Natchios disappeared in a flash of blue sparks, only to reappear in Marco's lap. "I can show up whenever he needs me."

Marco blinked. "If you could do that, why didn't you just teleport to me earlier?"

"This was a piece of magic I learned when I got older papa, you weren't around then and I needed to touch you to create the link in the first place. Now that it's in place, Natchios can come whenever you need her to."

Marco sighed and shook his head. "I really need to teach you what a double entendre means sweetheart. As if you keep talking like that, people might throw daddy in jail."

"Natchios will just break him out if that happens, she'll just melt the bad people who put daddy in there," She said with dragonic surety and childlike innocence.

"Umm, let's not do that okay sweetheart?" Marco said, patting her head.

The dragon girl grumbled goodnaturedly. "Fine daddy, but if I find out you get hurt while in jail," She snorted out a plume of acid from her nose. "No more miss nice Natchios."

Marco gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Thank you sweetie, now go finish your breakfast."

"Okay," The she-dragon hopped off his lap and made her way back to her seat.

Sakura cleared her throat. "Umm since you're going to Tokyo, maybe it would be best if I came along as a guide?"

"I would advise against that, Miss Matou," Zelretch piped up. "You are… not yet mentally strong enough to either face the kinds of creatures Marco will be fighting on an average basis, nor host a Heroic Spirit which would offer you resistance to their effects. You need to take time to heal, and repair your mental defenses. As you are now, one look at the thing he will be hunting down will finish the very job Zolgen Makari started over a decade ago."

Sakura went doe-eyed for a moment, staring at the Second Magician like a deer in headlights. She then lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes. "Yes… I see," She promptly stood up, "If you'll all please excuse me everyone."

Sakura excused herself from the table and made her way upstairs, the distant echo of a slamming door could be heard. Once she was gone, Marco fixed Zelretch with a glare. "Was that really necessary?"

"It was for her own good yes," The vampire replied. "She needs to face her demons before she can move past them."

Marco scoffed. "For someone who's over two thousand years old, you know jack shit about psychology. Forcing the issue when it's so fresh doesn't help, the only way it helps anyone is getting witness statements for the Special Victims Unit," Marco snapped out, "And even then, this is something that runs deep. You have no right to just bring it up like that."

"I come from the old line of thinking boy. Humanity has gotten soft in the current era, and in any case, do you honestly think modern psychology can help that girl after what she was subjected to?" Zelretch shook his head. "No, the only one who can help Matou Sakura, is Matou Sakura…" He then smiled at him, "And you of course."

Marco sighed. "I… we need to get going," He motioned to Star then looked to the others. "Keep an eye on Sakura while we're gone please." The Questor then turned back to the Second Magician, "How're we going to get there exactly?"

"Now that," Zelretch said before snapping his fingers, causing a multi-hued portal to appear several feet away. "I can help with. Good luck Marco. This world is counting on you, even though they don't know it."

Marco looked to the Mewman princess. "You sure you wanna do this? I'm pretty sure I can manage on my own."

In response, Star clasped her hand with his, "Let's go on an adventure Diaz."

Giving her hand a squeeze he replied, "Alright Butterfly, just remember this won't be like our usual forays into the multiverse. We've got a job to do this time."

"I know dear, so let's get to it."

"Let's."

The two disappeared into the portal hand in hand.

They found themselves in an alleyway between two buildings. There was no trash laying around, and the cement beneath their feet was slightly damp as if it had just been washed not too long ago. Stepping out into the street, Star's head was on a swivel. This was her first time in another country on Earth, even if she was in a different parallel earth.

"Woah, Marco, what's that!?"

Looking to where Star was pointing, amidst the gleaming monoliths of glass, concrete and steel, was a giant red Eiffel Tower like structure in the distance, Marco was quick to reply. "That's Tokyo Tower Star, a big tourist attraction. We can do some sightseeing later, as I'm not sure how time sensitive this job is."

"Promise?" She said holding her pinky out.

Marco just smiled and clasped his pinky around hers. "Promise. Now how to track this thing down… we'd need something like a hunting dog or… wait, I might actually have something for this." He stepped back into the alleyway, installed his class card and, summoning up the R'lyeh Text, flipped through its pages till he found the ritual he was looking for. Clearing his throat, he incanted, "Ai Nodens, al chku ta ne te ku rateku, tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"

As Marco spoke the blasphemous foul tongue written in the R'lyeh Text, a magic circle formed on the ground of a star within a star, that curved off at odd angles, and non geometric shapes. When the flash of mana cleared, a strange beast stood there. It's head was elongated and celephelodic, it's eyes opened vertically instead of horizontally, showing purple pupils, and it's body was gaunt while octopus-like tendrils complete with oval suckers on the end flailed along its back. Yet despite its odd appearance it was clearly still canid in shape, standing on four long gangly legs, with a long almost cone like snout the mouth opening and closing like a venus flytrap as it panted, looking at Marco and waiting for instructions.

"Hey boy, are you a Hound of Nodens?" Marco asked not at all perturbed by the sight of this otherworldly creature. In response, the suckered tendrils on the eldritch canine's back began to shake back and forth, much like that of a dogs tail. Marco took that as a good sign. "Okay good. I need your help tracking down someone, something that doesn't belong in this dimension. Will you help me?"

The Hound of Nodens let out a keening howl, it's pitch sending a shiver down Marco's spine. He didn't know why, but hearing that howl was like hearing the solemn ringing of a church's death bell tolling. The tentacles on its back then stood up and began sucking in air from different directions while its nose snuffled at the ground like any common hunting dog.

"Pss, Marco," Star stage whispered to him, "What's Snuffles doing?"

"Snuffles Star?" Marco asked, doing his best to keep the grin off his face. That just reminded him he needed to get a complete set of Harry Potter for Francesca like he'd promised her he would.

"Yeah, we gotta call him something, and he's sniffing a lot so… anyway, what's he up to?"

Pointing at the suckered tentacles on his back Marco replied, "I think it has extra noses, it can likely pick up smells from multiple directions and is trying to get a scent."

"Ohh, cool!" Star replied.

Marco glanced Star's way. "You're in no way freaked out by that thing? From what I've heard, most would run away screaming at the sight of it, if they didn't go stark raving mad."

Star scoffed. "Pff, please, I'm a princess from another dimension in case you've forgotten," She pointed at the Hound of Nodens, "I've seen weirder things than snuffles over there, and have been dimension hopping before we even met."

"True," Marco conceded. Suddenly, Snuffles as he was affectionately called brayed and took off running down the street. "Ah crap, c'mon Star!"

"Right behind you!"

The two adventurers took off after the Eldritch Hound and were surprised no one was breaking out into a panic as the thing ran down the street in broad daylight. 'Does it have some sort of defense mechanism, like casting an illusion over itself or something?' Marco wondered to himself as he raced after the beast.

They followed the hound to a nearby hospital called Tokyo University Medical Center, where it walked through the glass window pane as if it wasn't even there and proceeded with its mission. It raced through a door and up several flights of stairs. The two would-be heroes followed after it as quickly as they could.

Several flights of stairs later and they found themselves in the therapy ward. Still they followed behind the unveering hound of Nodens. It walked right through the office door of one Dr. R. Tanbo, prompting the two to knock.

"Hmm, what the, whose service dog is this?!" the voice of a woman asked

"Excuse me,' Marco said, opening the door and finding Snuffles sitting on his haunches in front of an older woman with brunette hair, two strands framing her pale face, and oval glasses over her dark brown eyes. She was wearing a doctor's coat over a long black dress and was currently sitting in a chair behind a desk. "I'm very sorry ma'am, Snuffles got away from me for a minute there."

"You are a foreigner, yet your Japanese is almost flawless," The woman noted, in a kind yet clinical tone. "Dr. Tanbo Ryoko and you are?"

"Diaz Marco nice to meet you. Tanbo-sensei," He said bowing politely, before motioning for Star to come inside. "This is my wife and partner Butterfly Star."

"Star-san, Marco-san, can I call you Marco-san?" Receiving a nod, the woman continued, "What brings you here, runaway dog notwithstanding?"

Marco folded his hands behind his back and gave off an air of professionalism. "We're here on assignment. The two of us are part of a unit that gets sent in when certain… incidents happen ma'am. Incidents that to most would be… unexplainable?"

The woman's brown eyes widened just a fraction behind her glasses but he saw it. Yet she said. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean?"

Patting the head of the Eldritch abomination, Marco replied calmly, while looking into the woman's eyes. "I think you do. See, Snuffles here is specially trained to sniff out that which doesn't belong in this world, if you take my meaning, and he led us straight to you. So, tell us what you know, Tanbo-sensei. Otherwise we will have to use force."

The woman's friendly cheerful demeanor melted off her face faster than a stick of butter put in a hot pan. Now that the cheerful facade was done away with in its place a cold, jaded, woman who was dispassionately glaring at him, she had an almost manic look in her eyes. "It all started with Ogai Masahiko. He was doing something… we aren't entirely sure what. But the hospital was soon infested with things. Scurrying like rats but they had odd growths, too many limbs bending in odd directions, too many eyes. We collected strange liquid samples… and patients in the psych wards screamed about an inhuman monster… at one point a newborn infant went missing with the only evidence we had being more of that strange liquid left behind."

Marco's fist clenched when he heard a baby had gone missing. "Can you tell us anything else sensei?" He spat out her title like a curse.

"The remains of several dogs and cats were found around the premises. Something had been eating them."

Using thought acceleration, Marco quickly put the pieces together. "So whatever this thing is, it started eating animals then it moved up to people. It's smart, smart enough to test whatever strange abilities it has on rodents just like we do."

"Wait, you think this thing, whatever it is, is sentient?!" Tanbo asked, sounding both disgusted and aghast at the same time.

Marco nodded, it made the most sense. "Yes, think about it. It started off hunting and gathering like a primitive human. Then came experimentation, its own Age of Enlightenment, or prepubescencesence if you will. Now, it only has one stage left. It's Renaissance period where it becomes an adult… and multiplies."

Ryoko paled, and the mania in her eyes became more prevalent as she stood up and all but shouted. "We have to find it and kill it before that happens! We have to!"

"That's why my partner and I are here Tanbo-sensei, it's our specialty. Please, leave it to us." Marco said calmly. "Now, has anyone been asking about Ogai-sensei recently?"

The woman nodded rapidly, "Yes, Fuminori Sakisaka, a patient of mine started asking about him recently."

"Is that in any way unusual?" Marco asked.

The woman hesitantly shook her head. "Yes, Sakisaka-kun was in a terrible car accident that took the lives of both of his parents, and left him with brain damage. Yet his operation happened two months after Ogai went missing…"

Marco waited for a moment before he asked, "But?"

"Sakisaka-kun. He's been quiet since his recovery, oddly so. At first I chalked it up to the death of his parents, since he's an only child and has no close relatives. Yet he's had this odd air about him, as if something was 'off' about him whenever he would come in for checkups. His operation was experimental so he needed to tell us about side effects yet I constantly got the feeling he wasn't telling me something…" Tanbo trailed off.

"Pot, meet kettle," Star muttered loudly.

Tanbo-sensei didn't react at all. "That said, for him to suddenly be asking me about Ogai, when he knew he'd gone missing shortly after his surgery… didn't sit right with me."

Marco nodded. "We'll look into him, do you have Ogai-sensei's home address?"

Slowly, Ryoko nodded. "I do, but the police have already been to his home and his cabin and found nothing."

Marco nodded. "That was before Star and I searched the place. We might find something they missed. If you give us the addresses, we'll head over right now."

Ryoko stood up. "I'm coming with you. I… need to see this through to the end."

Marco held out a hand, "I don't think that's wise Kyoko-san. You already look mentally fatigued. You need to leave this to the professionals from here on out."

"No," The woman replied in a flat cold tone. "I won't stand idly by and wondering and hoping you two get the job done, besides, without me, you don't know where to continue your search."

Star then intervened."Fine you can come with us, but only if you give us the addresses first."

"Why should I trust you?" Tanbo asked.

Star gave the woman a deadpan glare, "Um, I dunno, maybe because if you don't you could potentially be dooming the entire human race to potential extinction?"

The doctor's eyes widened even larger. "I see," She turned to the computer on her desk and quickly printed off a pair of addresses from her fax machine.

Star quickly snatched them up and handed them to her other half. "Okay that's enough of this crazy," Star said as she materialized the Wand, pointed it at the doctor and said, "Mind Eraser." She turned to Marco and finished, "Let's get outta here."

Marco blinked, looked at Ryoko Tanbo who had a dazed look in her eyes like she'd just been neuralized by the MIB and asked, "Is everything okay Star? You've been acting odd ever since you got your Class Card. I mean, I know you got foreknowledge out of it, but how bad could it have been?"

Star turned and looked at her significant other. "Is it okay if we go somewhere and talk about this before we go to either of those places?"

Marco nodded. Clearly something had been bothering her for a while. "Sure Star, we can stop at a cafe," He then motioned towards the doc with a nod of his head, "Is she going to be okay though?"

The Mewman princess waved off his concern. "She'll be fine. The doc'll just have forgotten the last hour or so thinking she dozed off. Ready to go?"

Marco shrugged. If she said Tanbo-sensei was going to be fine, he had no reason to doubt her. "Sure."

Marco's eyes turned into pinpricks and he broke out into a cold sweat when he saw the place Star wanted to have their talk at.

It was a love hotel.

"Umm Star? That's not a normal hotel, that's not a normal… ah crap," Marco said to himself as he rushed after the blonde princess.

"Hey Marco, how do we get a key for one of these rooms?" Star asked, coming up to a machine no bigger than a pop dispenser back home just inside the doors that had a lit screen, which had several different rooms on display which had the room number shown beneath each picture.

Marco gulped and did his best not to blush, and cleared his throat awkwardly as he replied, "Um, Star. This isn't a normal hotel. We should probably go."

The princess turned and gave him a confused look. "Not a normal hotel, what kind of hotel is it?"

"It's a love hotel. It's where people come to… well, you know?"

"Have sex?" Star finished with a smirk on her face, "Marco, I've got a goddess who's in love with love inside of my head. I know what a love hotel is."

Marco sighed wiping the beading of sweat from his brow, "Now isn't really the time for… that Star."

Star kissing Marco on his cheek. "We're not going to be doing that silly mulberry. Maybe later," She whispered in his ear huskily. "After we're done saving this dimension. Right now, I just wanna talk about this whole foreknowledge thing.

"Okay, do you want to pick out the room?" Marco asked much calmer now that Star made her intentions clear.

"I'd love to, dear," Star said as she made her way up to the machine, before turning back to Marco and admitting in embarrassment, "I don't know how to read this."

Marco smiled warmly. "Here, lemme help."

Five minutes later Marco and Star walked into a light blue painted room. The bed sheets were a light aqua color covering a king sized bed, and a small tv was mounted on the wall. There was a closet and bathroom off to the side, and the floor was simple carpet.

Star looked around and nodded. "This is pretty nice. Not as good as our room of course, but still, nice."

"Yeah," Marco agreed with a nod. "So what's going on with this foreknowledge of yours?"

In response, Star hopped onto the end of the bed and began kicking her feet, sky blue eyes fixed on the floor. "I saw the future. Our future Marco!" She looked up at him, eyes filled with tears and existential dread. "It was awful!"

"Hey," Marco came over and put an arm around her shoulder. "Shh, it's okay Star, none of whatever you saw has happened yet. We can fix all of it."

Star pulled him to her and buried her head into the crook of his neck. "I know, I keep telling myself that but," She locked eyes with him again and shook her head. "Everything we went through, what I put you through Marco… what my mother did to Eclipsa and Mewni! I-I don't know if I can trust her anymore."

"What do you mean Star?" Marco asked calmly. "What happened?"

Star took a breath. "I… ended up getting back together with Tom."

"Eh? Tom, the same Tom you and I know?" Marco asked.

Star nodded. "Yes after Ludo's take over of Mewni."

"Wait, Ludo? The same mook we've beaten dozens of times together, took over Mewni?"

Star gave her head a shake. "Oh right that hasn't happened yet. Umm, yeah Ludo has his own wand right now as we know, what we don't or won't know till later is that his wand is possessed by Toffee, he ends up taking over Mewni and I destroy both my Wand and his with the Whispering Spell."

Marco blinked. "Okay wow, a lot to take in all at once."

Star scoffed. "That's not even the tip of the iceberg Diaz."

Marco began thinking at rapid speed. "When I was talking with your dad the other day, he was talking about a corn shortage."

"Ludo and his rat army," Star affirmed. "Or is it Toffee and his army? I'm not sure?" She shook her head. "What's more, I'm afraid to change anything because the more I change anything the less reliable my information will be."

"Butterfly Effect," Marco said nodding.

"There's an effect named after my family?" Star asked intrigued.

Marco made a kinda sorta motion with his hand. "Not really it's a theoretical effect of time travel where if you change even a small thing in the past it could have unknown huge impacts on the future. It comes from the idiom of if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it will cause a Tornado in Texas."

"Woah… testify! Is that really a thing? Do butterflies really do that here?" Star asked awed.

Marco shook his head. "No, not that I know of, anyway. What happens with Toffee?"

Star winced uncomfortably as she replied, "Well… I kinda sorta died… maybe?"

"What?" Marco deadpanned with anger and power flowing from his form. "Explain, my Red Queen."

Hearing Marco be all demanding like that sent a pleasant shiver down her spine. "Yes my Mulberry King… Well, somehow Toffee ends up both inside and corrupting the Magic Dimension, which was ironically the right thing to do, because the other me just randomly decided to destroy the Magic by herself…" She gripped the sheets of the bed hard as she bit her lower lip almost causing it to bleed. "I almost lost you forever, due to that."

Marco pulled her close. "How?"

"Earth has its own portal to the magic dimension located under Britta's Taco's. You had to go back to Earth, I had to go back to Mewni… forever…"

"Oh Star," Marco said, pulling her into a hug.

The Princess continued leaning into him. "But I didn't want to live without you, so I went back into the Magic… and you were still there, waiting for me."

"Then what happened? Do we die together, in the Magic Dimension?" Marco asked, being romantically tragic for a moment.

The princess shook her head. "No, I… we? Somehow managed to teleport out of there and then again due to reasons I don't really understand, we both ended up in our own dimensions and headed towards a giant portal. We reached it, there was an explosion and Mewni and Earth were fused together. I've been calling this new dimension Merth."

"Okay… did some stuff happen in-between?" Marco asked as he rapidly processed all of this information. "As none of this explains why you distrust your mother."

Star took a breath. "Okay. Well, as it turns out, I'm not really a princess. See, after Eclipsa was frozen, the daughter she had with Globgor, Meteora was raised by a robot, and she eventually became Miss Heinous."

"Meaning that Heinous is the true heir to the throne. So then what about your family line?"

Stars lower lip quivered, "We're related to Pie Folk, a group of thieving, pie making, con artists. The MHC picked up a girl who accidentally got left behind. They named her Festivia and Hekapoo basically raised her. She's my great-great-great-Grandmother. As for why I don't trust my mother, she ends up teaming up with Mina Loveberry of all people, secretly restarting Solaria's Solarian Warrior program to dispose of Eclipsa because she couldn't get over her hatred of, and almost destroying Mewni. That's what led me to destroying the Magic Dimension in the first place, it was the only thing I could think to do to stop them."

Marco took a breath. "Okay. We'll need to keep an eye on your mother, but Star? You can never use the Whispering Spell okay?"

Star nodded warily, "I don't intend to but why?"

Marco took a moment to sift through Prelati's memories. "Well, because, by destroying magic you would essentially be killing off whole dimensions and planets. See the planet itself is alive. It is known to magi as the Greater Source, that of mana. As a Heroic Spirit, if you use the Whispering spell in this or any other dimension, you would be murdering the entire planet and everything on it."

Star paled as white as a ghost. "So when that other me did it to the whole Magic Dimension…"

Marco grimaced and nodded. "You killed trillions of planets and ended who knows how many hundreds of trillions of lives." Star started to hyperventilate, and Marco put a hand on her back assuaging her guilt. "It's okay, just breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Remember none of this has happened yet and it doesn't have to happen. We can fix it."

Star nodded and hugged Marco to her like he was a lifeline, and he was, hers anyway. Marco silently ran his hands through her golden mane, as he whispered encouraging words into her ear. "There, there, mia estrella guia, none of this needs to happen. In fact, I'll make sure it doesn't. You've already averted yourself getting together with Tom, though I think he's nice enough."

"A-About that, we actually thought we were cursed by the Blood Moon at the Ball and went to the depths of the Underworld to get it removed… and we did, but it cost us," Star began.

Marco pulled her closer. "What was the cost?"

Star sniffled a little, "The memory of our dance at the Ball."

The questor nodded. He assumed that was it. "I see. Well don't worry about that, because we don't need to do it."

Star nodded tears, falling down her face as she smiled. "Also, it did nothing in the end. The memory and the curse was gone but our feelings were still there."

"Proving that we loved each other the whole time," Marco soothed. "So we don't need to go through with that."

"You're right, of course, but what about the rest?" Star asked, feeling a cathartic release now that she could share with someone, specifically Marco.

Marco took and kissed the back of her hand. "I'll do what I can to plan around events, but right now Estrella Guia, we've got a job to do."

"You're right, of course," Star said, hopping off the bed and willing her own Class Card to appear. "Install!" One flash of light later and Star was wearing her revealing crimson dress, the metal halo was floating behind her and in her hands she had a massive bow with a star shaped scope on the end. "So, where to first darling?" She asked, smiling at him warmly.

"I'd like to check Ogai-sensei's cabin and see what we can find. After that we can look into this Fuminori Sakisaka."

"Alright!" Star bounced on the balls of her feet forcing more exuberance into her tone than was needed and doing some… rather marvelous things for her bust in the process. "Let's do this!"

"Star you don't need to force yourself to be happy, you know that, right?" Marco reminded her gently.

In response, Star gave her boyfriend a waning smile. "Thanks Marco I… really needed to hear that. That said, I really do wanna figure this out, if only so we can come back here and finally have some… alone time," She blushed a little as she said this but looked at him hopefully nonetheless.

"We'll have plenty of time for that, Star, I rented this room for a whole twenty-four hours."

The princess nodded. "You know you can just call it sex Marco. I'm fifteen not five. Well technically I'm twenty-five mentally since I spent about a decade in Hekapoo's dimension trying to move Natchios' hoard."

"I thought you looked a bit older and gained an inch or so in height but it's not polite to bring up a woman's age soo~." Marco trailed off.

"Such a gentleman my Mulberry King is," Star said as she planted a kiss on his cheek. "But yes, Janna, and myself spent a decade at her place. It gave me the insight and appreciation I needed to really understand just a bit of what you went through."

"Thanks Star. Ready to head to that cabin?"

Star intertwined her hand with his. "Yeah, let's go."

Marco tapped into his still present 'safe kid' side and made sure he still had the keys on him for their room before they left. It was time to find some answers.

The address Marco and Star decided to check out first was three hours out of the way. In West Tochigi Prefecture, near Nasu Heights. They decided not to draw attention to themselves and just rent a car. It was a three hour drive and Star enjoyed the scenery even when the snow covered the road and Marco had to shift the minivan they rented into second gear to get up the treacherous paths. Tearing her gaze from the snow covered scenery, Star asked her beloved. "How do you even know how to drive a car anyway?"

"I have a riding skill due to having Natchios as a mount technically speaking," Marco replied, not taking his eyes off the road.

Star blinked. "Oh, wow, so what would the equivalent rank be?"

Marco peered into the frozen gloom as he replied. "A++. Dragons shouldn't be ridable under the Servant system."

Giving him a sideways leer, Star asked. "Does Natchios like it when you ride her Marco?"

This caused the Questor to shake his head. "You and Francesca are terrible, you know that?"

Star shrugged, "I look forward to putting that riding skill of yours to the test later my mulberry," the Mewman Princess whispered huskily into his ear.

"Star, we've got a job to do right now," Marco reminded her not for the first time.

In response, the blonde princess pulled him into a one armed hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I know, I know, but still… What's wrong my little mulberry? Can't handle a little double entendre?"

In response Marco kisses Star on her cheek mark. "It's not that, I just don't like incest jokes."

Star nodded. "Ah, okay makes sense totally, totally, totally." Then Star had a dark thought. 'Just how closely related are some of my relatives?' She shivered at the thought.

Marco stopped the car at what looked like a game trail half hidden by trees. "I think this is the place."

Star glanced at it, "You sure? It looks abandoned."

Marco as if in a trance, nodded. "Yeah, I've got a… gut feeling. Something… happened here."

Star looked at him worriedly. "Marco? Are you okay?"

"Let's go Star, there is work to be done here, " Marco said, throwing off his seatbelt and getting out of the car.

Concerned, the princess followed her beau. Neither noticed the biting cold of the snow, for they had installed their class cards before even setting out in the car, thus, the weather was of no consequence.

They walked down a trail and eventually came to a dilapidated wooden cabin. It was heavily covered with snow, its triangular roof, jutting out almost steeple like in the gloom. The crunch of snow underfoot was the only thing that broke the silence. Then Marco held out an arm, and pointed. A sports car was parked not too far away and two sets of footprints were in the snow. The adventuring duo looked at each other and nodded. Star summoned her bow, and Marco said the words that had, in part, come to define him.

"Trace on!"

Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands, the Yin-Yang swords held extra special meaning to him for they extolled his primary Origin of Zen. Flipping Bakuya into a reverse grip he made his way towards the cabin with Star covering his six.

The two moved seamlessly and silently, such was their bond no words needed to be spoken between them as they cleared the cabin one room at a time, yet they found nothing. Just dust, the scent of mold and dirty dishes in the sink, and an unmade bed in the back, along with a bathroom in serious need of a cleaning.

"Hmm, nothing here," Star said.

Marco held up a finger, "I wanna try something, hold on." Placing kanshou on the bed and then his hand on the ground he said, "Trace on." The Questor traced the entirety of the cabin and the grounds it was situated on looking for any abnormalities. He found several, the one that garnered his immediate attention came from the stone well out back. Turning to his Red Queen he said, "Follow me."

Marco raced outside, with Star hot on his heels. Neither hesitated to jump straight down the well. At the bottom, they found a young man in a suit, his spiky brown hair was forced flat by the damp mud that had coated it. Marco made his way over to him and smacked his cheek. "Hey c'mon now, wake up. If you sleep here, you'll die."

The twenty-something man weakly, slowly, opened his eyes. Then he asked, "Are… are you real?"

Marco and Star smiled at him, and Star replied, "Yep totally."

The man weakly forced himself to his feet. "Thank goodness, my friend Sakisaka Fuminori, he… he lost his mind! He pushed me into this well… I thought I was going to die down here."

"Easy now, you're gonna be just fine, you said you're a friend of Fuminori Sakisaka?" Marco asked.

The man nodded. "Yes, ah, I'm Tonoh Koji, thanks for the rescue. How do you know Fuminori?"

"I'm Diaz Marco, and this is my wife, Butterfly Star, we were sent here to… deal with what Fuminori has got himself involved in," He didn't say that he might have to 'deal with' Fuminori as well.

"I see…" Koji replied. How're we going to get out of here, did either of you bring a rope?"

Marco shook his head. "No need."

He reached past Koji into a crack in the wall, reached through it and fiddled around for a moment, before a click was heard, then, the wall slid out, revealing a hidden passage. "Let's go, Koji, stay behind us, we don't know what's at the end of this thing."

Koji nodded. "R-Right… but how did you know it was there in the first place?"

"I got the blueprints for this place before heading out here. I noticed he had some contract work done on the well," Marco lied easily as he made his way down the passage. "We should've brought flashlights."

"On it," Star chimed in. Moments later, the passage was lit by a dull pink light. The scope on Star's bow, that was also the faceplate of the wand was aglow with magic.

Koji looked at Star's bow, then back and forth between Marco and Star before commenting. "You two… aren't normal people are you?"

"What one defines as 'normal' is all about perception Tonoh-kun," Marco explained conversationally, " Star and mine's perception of what's 'normal' might differ from yours a bit."

The medical student silently digested that for a time as they walked down the now lit tunnel. They stopped only briefly when Marco picked up a coiled piece of severed rope, and narrowed his eyes at it. Just a bit further down the tunnel was a simple wooden door. Marco glanced back at Star who nodded. He moved to the door and kicked it in with one fluid motion before moving inside, Star hot on his heels.

The interior of this secret place looked like a cross between an operating room and an archaic study. The tile floor had a drain in the middle of it, with a gurney in the middle of the room and shelves with all manner of ancient texts from sheepskin scrolls to papyri, and old tomes, all stuffed into nooks and crannies when there were no more room on the bookshelves. One, no two black boards and even carved into the walls themselves were strange eldritch diagrams. Then Marco saw it. Sitting half covered by a chinese blind that had an octopus on the front. A desiccated almost mummified corpse of a man. Marco made his way over. The hollowed out pits of his eyes and the rictus grin of his skull, clutched in his left hand was a five shot revolver that had no safety and four bullets left if the hole in the skeleton's head was any indication.

"Ogai-sensei I presume?" Marco muttered to himself.

"W-what is this place?" Koji asked.

Marco took in all with his sight, Structurally Grasping everything he could and came to a singular conclusion within a matter of nanoseconds. Doctor Ogai was a magus. Yet whatever truth he had uncovered had driven him irrevocably mad. He looked at the magic circles written on the chalkboard. 'Summoning formula. He was attempting to summon something, but what?' Marco looked through the notes, there was a small mountain of them, and he didn't have time to decipher them all not if a wild summon was on the loose. So he did what he always did, and cheated a bit. "Trace on."

While his empathic ability usually only extended to history and skill with bladed weapons, it could be used to rapidly gain information on other subjects as long as he could scan the objects in question and derive the history behind it, which is what he was doing now with Ogai's notes.

What he learned surprised him. The doctor was attempting to summon a thing beyond human comprehension, a thing which he named Saya after his mother's old cat. It had intelligence beyond human reckoning and seemed to be able to take in DNA and reformat it. It's purpose was to consume enough human DNA to eventually bloom and spread spores across the globe, eventually turning everything into copies of itself. Or similar organisms at least. He also learned that 'Saya' had a unique biology her body could expand and contract all at once, making cutting weapons near useless against her, she also was rather weak against extreme cold for that very reason. 'I wonder if the same holds true for Noble Phantasms wielded with a Servant's strength behind it.' He then turned to Star and Koji, who was leaning up against a desk and looking rather peaky. "Well, I know what we need to do now. We need to find the thing Ogai summoned and kill it."

"That's, that's great. Can we go now, this place is making me feel sick to my stomach for some reason." Koji said, sounding as woozy as he looked.

Marco nodded. "Sure you look dead on your feet anyway Tohno-kun." He then made his way over to a certain wall and gave it a hard punch. Some plaster gave way under his fist, showing an old entrance that had been covered up and half concealed by the gloom. "This should lead back to the boiler room in the cellar beneath the house. Can you walk a bit further Tohno-kun? Or do you need Star or I to carry you?"

While he knew Marco meant it kindly, but Koji took it as an insult to his manly pride. "I'll walk, don't worry."

"Okay head on down the tunnel I've got to get rid of all this," Marco said to Koji and Star as he gave the room a final once over with a grimace. "Shouldn't take but a moment."

"Do hurry dear, Koji looks like he could do with a hot meal," Star said worrying for his health, watching as the medical student made his way down the tunnel under his own failing power.

Marco nodded. "Yeah… hey Star? Would you mind too terribly going to the closest convenience store and getting some food?"

Star smiled. "Sure thing dear. Got any cash?"

He reached into his Prussian Blue wallet and got out a ten thousand yen note. "Here, Estrella Guia."

"Thanks my little mulberry, I'll go get Koji settled in on the bed then go out shopping while you take care of all of this."

Marco nodded and walked to the center of the room. He quickly decided on the easiest way to take care of this mess. "Set Boundary Field Flame, ten meters. Fire."

A circular plume of flame burst forth from his feet consuming almost the entire laboratories thirty-five square foot space all at once. Once he was sure everything was ablaze, Marco calmly walked out of the hidden workshop leaving the dead magus to be consumed along with his research.

Marco waited for almost ten minutes for Star to return, her arms laden with grocery bags full of food. "Hey!" She said in a loud whisper not wanting to wake Koji, "I've got food!"

"Good work Star… so did you like getting to go all out for once?"

Judging by the giddy grin on Star's face and the glow in her cheek marks, the answer was yes. The empathetic nodding also helped. "Did I ever. I practically flew down the mountain. Then back up it. There were a couple of cracking noises when I left. I don't know what those were though.

"That was the sound of you breaking the sound barrier, Star," Marco explained.

"Sound has a barrier? Is it a magic barrier?" Star asked puzzled.

Marco shook his head bemused. "No when something moves beyond what is known as the speed of sound, it's called breaking the sound barrier Star."

Star nodded in understanding. "Oh… so what's the speed of sound?"

"About seven-hundred-sixty-seven miles per hour." Marco replied, taking the bags and rifling through them for a sandwich, can of green tea, and what looked like a jelly doughnut.

"So, what's our next move?" Star asked, while taking out her own identical meal, and leaving a third untouched back for their still sleeping rescuee.

Taking a bite of his sandwich and washing it down with tea, he replied, "We go look into Sakisaka-san and... do what needs to be done."

Star grimaced and nodded her eyes burning with blue fire. "Right. We should leave Koji here. Keep him out of this."

"Agreed, he's suffered enough," Marco said with a sigh. "That thing, Saya is almost immune to slicing damage."

"Can we even kill her then? We're both Archers. I mean I could blast her, it, with my Wand but that's the nuclear option."

Marco hummed to himself. "Technically speaking I'm a Caster but I get what you mean. I was going to just send this thing back to where it came from… but then I found out it ate a baby, so now, the gloves come off." Marco's jaw and eyes hardened. Showing his resolve to kill.

"Agreed." Star, Johansen that she was, was right there with him on that front. "So to Sakisaka's house then?"

"Yeah I'm ready to go if you are. Time could be of the essence now, so we gotta move fast," Marco said, throwing his trash in the garbage.

"What about the car?" Star inquired.

Marco stroked his kung-fu manchu "One of us could carry it I suppose."

Star nodded. "I'll do it. Your better close up and at range and I'm best at a distance so it won't matter much to me if I'm carrying a car."

The Questor smiled. "Thanks Star. To be honest you're stronger than me still anyway. Unless I use all my Noble Phantasms and skills then…" Marco gave a little laugh, and scratched the back of his head with his bandaged right arm. "Well, I'd rather not get into that."

Star nodded. Yet couldn't help but wonder how much Marco was holding back. "Okay Marco. Ready to go?"

"Yep," Star tossed her own trash and then looked to the back room where Koji Tono was sleeping. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"We can only hope. C'mon, let's finish this."

Sakisaka Fuminori was in the bath with his lover and the only anchor he had left in this deranged world since his operation, Saya. He was regaling her with the tale of how he took care of one of their problems, Koji Tono.

"Then, I pushed him down the well while he was distracted, it's a shame he didn't break his neck on the way down, now he'll have to die slowly."

"Fuminori," Saya said cuddling up to his chest. "Why didn't you wear his clothes back? You were half frozen, you know?"

"He was down in the well, and wet Saya," He had to remind himself that though Saya had genius-like intellect, she often overlooked the obvious.

She giggled like the child she seemed to be. "Oh, hehehe, I suppose that's true. Still a shame you couldn't have dealt with him some other way and brought the body back. We could've had some extra meat then."

Fuminori frowned a bit. "True, I hadn't thought of that," He then shook his head, "In the end it would've been too risky, I would've had no way to transport it, and I couldn't use his car. It could lead back to me."

Again, the girl nodded. "True," She then smiled. "Fuminori, I've got a surprise for you," She said, suddenly pulling him out of the bath. "Close your eyes and no peeking."

Following her directives, Fuminori closed his eyes, then he heard the sound of moaning coming from their shared bedroom. Yet it sounded… human not the screeching groan that came from the monstrous humans since his operation.

"Saya, is someone in our house?" Fuminori asked.

She responded by gently slapping him on the arm. "No peeking! Do you remember how you told me earlier how you wanted friends and a family?"

He nodded dumbly. "Yes?" He heard the sound of the bedroom door opening and the whining noise reached its crescendo.

"Well, I got you a pet, open your eyes." Saya said.

Doing so he found Yoh Tsukuba, the girl who had a crush on him, who he'd harshly rebuked, lying naked on his bedroom floor. Except she didn't look like a slime covered flesh monster, but the normal girl he recalled. Chestnut haired, pale of skin and of a full womanly figure. He looked to Saya, and asked, "How? she looks normal."

"Well, I turned her into what I am," Saya admitted. "I figured that would make her look normal to you, and it seems to have worked." She smiled a wicked heartless smile in Yoh's direction, "The poor things mind couldn't seem to cope with the transformation though," She then glanced and Fuminori expectantly. "So are you going to try her out?"

"Try her out?" Fuminori echoed.

"You know play with her like you do me," Saya said with childlike innocence, "We can both have lots of fun playing with her, don't you think?" Again, Saya smiled a wicked devious smile devoid of any kind of warmth as she looked down at Yoh. It was then Fuminori realized death would've been a mercy for Yoh, and Saya had her right where she wanted her as she continued. "Just so you know Fuminori you can play with her all you want but your seed belongs to me and me only."

"I see. Saya, not that I don't appreciate this because I do, but how are we going to keep her from running away to the police?"

Saya just smiled like an innocent child. "I already took care of that see?" She said before she pulled on a long thin metal chain and yanked on it, dragging Yoh over to them both by her neck. She had a metal dog collar on. One end of the chain was attached to the collar, and the other end was wrapped around his wrought iron bed frame preventing any form of escape.

"Besides, she's broken Fuminori. She can't talk can you doggie?" Saya asked only for Yoh to flinch back. Clearly Saya's voice terrified her.

"Wha-wha-wha!" A garbled mess was all that came out of Yoh's mouth. Primitive beastial screeches, showing the lights were on but no one was home.

'She really is an animal isn't she?' The cannibal thought to himself. He then smirked. 'Well it would be rude not to use a gift to the fullest.'

Just as he was reaching for Yoh to have his way with her, the sound of his front door getting kicked in was heard. Fuminori didn't hesitate, not after he came home and found his neighbor raping Saya after she gave him his anosia. Instead he reached under his pillows and pulled out a six inch butcher cleaver. To him it looked like a flesh and slime covered thing, its flat covered with pustules and roving eyes. yet it had its edge, and that was the important part. He wouldn't let Saya be hurt again.

The sounds of footsteps slowly almost casually drawing closer heightened the tension in the room, until the door was pushed open. A man, a man, not an inhuman monster to Fuminori's eyes walked into the room, he was clad in black armor with a purple cloth covering his left arm and his right hand was covered in bandages. He looked older than him by about a decade, and he had premature grey streaks going through his brown hair, his chocolate brown eyes stared at Fuminori accusingly.

Following behind him was a blonde humanoid thing. Far from being unpleasant to look at however, she was a thing of ethereal beauty, far too perfect. Two resplendent golden wings sprang from her, back, flaxen hair defied gravity, and flowed in two bunches above her head like an antenna. She was clad in a golden gown that split down the middle all the way to her navel and she held a massive bow in her hand. Behind her was a massive metal hoop. Her features were too sharp, her skin too fair and eyes too pure a blue to be that of a human. It was as if she was meticulously crafted by a master doll maker and then brought to life,

What Marco and Star saw by contrast was much darker and sinister. In the center of a room that looked like it had been painted by a mad man every possible color of the rainbow and every hue besides, stood a gaunt, sunken eyed ghoul of a man, with a butcher knife in hand, naked as they day he was born.

Next to him was a humanoid eldritch abomination. It looked feminine, with eyeballs where its breasts should be, its hair and arms were a mass of slime covered undulating tendrils that seemed to warp and shift and random moments, bits and pieces of animals, plants and other things would randomly pop out on its crimson bloody flesh only to sink back into the crimson chaos tide that was its flowing biomass. It had two green pupiless eyes that stared at them both unblinkingly as if confused, the flowing tendrils that made up its hair swayed and the overly long 'fingers' at the end of each appendage that could pass for a hand one reached up and tapped its chin. Then the creature spoke in a tinny droning pitchy voice. "WHo Is hE FuMInoRI? I ReGOnIzE ThE OtHEr aS a GoDDeSs."

'Shoggoth' something in his mind told Marco as he stared at the things. One which hid behind the nude man, and the other which sat, curled up like a frightened animal on the floor.

The ghoul-like man turned to the shoggoth and replied, "I don't know Saya, but don't worry I won't let them hurt you."

"That's big talk coming from a naked cannibal armed with nothing but a butcher knife," The man with the kung fu manchu said.

"WHo aRe yoU to InfRinGE on My DomAin?" Saya demanded of Star. "THis is My HUntinG GroUnd! YOu haVE nO plaCE heRE GOddeSS!" Saya said stomping her 'foot' on the ground like a petulant child being denied a treat or toy they wanted.

Star snorted at that. "No place here? It's you that don't belong here, in human society, little thing from between the stars." Star pulled back her bow instantly, nocking an arrow made of moonlight. "We intend to send you back to where you belong, one way, or another."

"You won't touch Saya!" Fuminori growled standing in between the two and the shoggoth, as he brandished his cleaver haphazardly in their direction. It was obvious just from how he stood that he'd never been in a fight before.

Marco sighed. "Enough posturing. Trace on."

An uncomfortable heat trailed up Marco's left arm as his magic circuits activated. He required not a sword that was sharp, but one that was heavy and blunt. It turns out, he had such a sword. Pulling its image into his mind's eye, pulled back the trigger, and fired it into reality. In a flash of sparks, Naegling, one of the two swords of the hero Beowulf, appeared in his hand. It was a sword not used to cut or cleave, but to bluntly smash its foes with its weight. It was closer to a flanged iron club than a sword, but history called it a sword, and thus a sword this massive lump of iron was regardless of its shape.

He swung the fluted club once, testing its weight. Then he calmly walked towards the madman. He spoke in a flat final tone. "Move, you don't need to die. You can spend the rest of your life in a sanatorium."

"GRAHHH!" Fuminori Sakisaka roared like a wounded animal and lashed out with his butcher knife, swinging at Marco's neck…

The kitchen implement broke when it connected with his skin. Marco looked annoyed. "Alright then." He then almost casually swung Naegling at him, and Fuminori's body was torn in half, his torso and innards flying to the left until it landed with a crimson squelch against the garish painted wall.

"FuMInOri!" The creature cried out in anguish, slithering its way over to his almost severed torso. "FuMiNOri, hanG On!" Pus was falling from Saya's eyes in the form of tears. She turned and glared at Marco. "YOu MOnster! You FUCkinG moNSTER!"

Marco grimaced. He did what he had to do. "Maybe you can be together again in death. I'll give you a moment to pray if you'd like."

"I'll KIll yoU! YOu tOOk FUMinoRI frOm ME!" Saya screeched. She made a move towards Marco only to be shot in the chest by a shaft of moonlight.

Marco glanced behind him, "Star, I got this."

The Mewman Princess had already nocked another arrow on her bow. Her usually boisterous demeanor was gone and replaced with a grim scowl. "No Marco, this bitch wanted to know why I was here, well, I'm here to kill her sorry ass! Now stand aside."

"YOu, BoTh oF YoU deNIeD us OuR haPPiNeSS! DaMn yoU damN you DaMn yOu!" Saya cried out as another arrow of moonlight pierced her mutable hide, and even more yellow puss tears rolled down her face, from equal amounts of pain and anguish.

Then suddenly out of the blue the Sacred Chalice appeared before the abomination, and a voice, oily and wicked rang out from it, asking, "What, is your wish?"

The moment Marco saw the chalice, his mind was a whirl of thoughts. 'What the? How is that thing here?! It should be stuck in Hekapoo's dimension. How did it even get here?!'

None of his questions were answered as the grief filled abomination made her plea. "I WAnt FumINOri aNd i To BE tOGetHer forEVer! I WaNt tO ChAGE thiS WORld intO a PlacE wheRE We'LL bE AccEPTed!"

The glowing white chalice was silent for a moment before the voice within spoke again, "Very well, your wish will be granted."

Saya watched in fascination as Fuminori's body began to melt and become a gelatinous slime, one that began to instantly fuse with her own rapidly liquefying body. As Sayas body melted like hot candle wax and combined with her beloved she smiled and just said one word. "FuMINori."

When the human and eldritch abomination became a single fluid mass, they started to take a tangible shape. It looked like a twisted tree of flesh and blood stained bone, veins or tentacles dug into the floor as a trunk of keratin burst through the roof of the Sakisaka household. Due to the bedroom being on the upper floors, the floor collapsed beneath its weight and the flesh tree burrowed its tentacle roots deep into the earth. Then, Marco noticed the scenery around them began to slowly transmogrify into strange fleshy shapes. The walls became like slime covered flesh, the bed and sheets became eyeball covered pieces of bloody skin, and the hole the tree burst from was a gaping bleeding wound from a much larger organism, even the other shoggoth was quickly being absorbed into the rapidly mutating floor.

"Star we need to leave now!" Marco said turning around and grabbing her hand and running towards the entrance.

Star let herself be led along, "Marco! What's happening?!"

"That thing," Marco glanced back at the tree as he jumped down the stairs which had become like misshapen jutting teeth. "It's slowly turning the world around it into its own common sense, like a Reality Marble."

"A Reality Marble?" Star asked as they half rushed down the stairs.

He looked down at the floor and noticed the furniture was rapidly being dissolved in highly potent acid. 'Stomach acid.' His rapid trace told him the house was literally being turned into a part of whatever Saya and Fuminori were becoming.

He saw the front door slowly being changed into something lined with teeth as the windows were changing into a bunch of roving eyes.

"Fuck this we're leaving now!" Marco said as he traced a long black bow and a spiral shaped sword that he used Alteration on to make it more aerodynamic and arrow-like as he pulled it back on the bowstring. For just a moment, Marco radiated power almost equal to her own, and Star was humbled. "Caladbolg II," he said as he let the Broken Phantasm fly towards what was once the door of the Sakisaka residence.

The space between the arrow and the door was twisted and distorted, as was the door itself before it was blown apart. Marco then picked Star up bridal style and dashed out the door and across the street before he turned around.

'It's spreading,' Marco thought, noting how the street itself was already half turned into slime colored green flesh, fire hydrants became leaking yellow polyps, and lamp lights became curved swaying bony fingers. The air was filled with a foul stench, like bile and rotting flesh left out in the summer sun combined. Then there was 'the tree'.

The Tree that was Saya and Fuminori Sakisaka had already reached ten meters, was bone white in places but looked like the broken bone that was poking through bloody flesh. Branches stuck out every which way. Some were covered in leaves that looked like bits of skin that had been flayed off, while other branches had long sharp ends like fingernails or talons of a predator. The weirdest part however were the faces in the middle of the tree.

It was a side profile of both Fuminori and who he assumed was Saya, he assumed because she didn't look like the abomination he was familiar with but a cute dark haired girl. Both she and Fuminori were trapped in a liplock, a heart shape in the center of the tree surrounding the two of them. Yet their eyes roved around taking in the scene.

"Saya," Fuminori spoke, "We're together again."

"Now and forever Fuminori," Saya assured him, "We'll make this world a place where we can live and be accepted."

"Yes," Fuminori agreed. "Let's." His dark-brown almost black eye locked onto Marco. "But first, we need to get rid of them. They have no place in our new world."

Saya looked at the two with the cold analytical gaze a scientist would give a sample under a petri dish. "Yes, they must pay for trying to destroy our happiness."

"Marco, what do we do?" Star asked, still in his arms.

In response, Marco set Star on her feet and spoke confidently, "The only thing we can do Estrella Guia, we fight."

Star nodded. "What's the plan?"

Using Thought Acceleration and Memory Partition, Marco quickly came up with a plan. "I can slow down their reality marble. While I do that, you hammer them with everything you've got."

"Can do," Star kissed him on the cheek. "Be careful my love."

Marco gave Star her own kiss. "You too Star, don't go dying on me."

"Never," Star promised. "Mewberty Form. Dipping Down." Activating two of her own personal Noble Phantasms at once. Star became something close to goddess in her own right. Her dress became like spun gold, her hair twisted itself into two braids that defied gravity and stood straight up, and a pair of beautiful golden wings burst from her back. She also gained four extra arms, and both her eyes and cheek marks glowed bright white as she dipped down. She looked to him, smiled, and said in a voice echoing with power, "Be safe, beloved."

She then took off like a rocket and started blasting the tree with every and any spell she could think of, like a golden comet, she flitted about like a moth drawn to a flame, torrents of ice coated the tree's trunk before it was blasted away by another spell that was just as powerful. Marco couldn't help but just watch in awe for a moment, this was the real Star Butterfly the badass rebel princess, and she was his girlfriend. He felt so privileged to be in that position.

"I guess I'd better get to work myself," He said, giving his head a shake. "Delusional Illusion."

Using the Noble Phantasm that belonged to Francois Prelati for the first time, Marco watched in fascination as the hellish landscape disappeared like a mirage in the desert. He grit his teeth as he felt the drain on his prana reserves. He knew he had to keep this up until Star managed to cut down that tree and in order to do that, Marco had to pull out all the stops.

Holding out his left hand, he said, "Monarch Butterfly Order!"

The standard that signified his love and devotion to Star burst forth, flapping in the fetid breeze, the golden butterfly standing proud and defiant on the blue field.

Marco recalled the Quest, his reasons for fighting, his guiding Star. He layered his own natural Mad Enhancement on top of that granted by Monarch Butterfly Order. Marco was as strong as he could be at the moment, or so he thought.

"Not quite," A voice said it sounded bemused. "There's still one more skill you've yet to use. Yet I've got to say, you're quite the amusing specimen."

"Who're you?" Marco mumbled

"Come now Marco, you should know my name, you just used my Noble Phantasm," The voice cajoled.

"Francois Prelati." Marco said after a moment, knowing what Gilies de Rais sounded like. This wasn't him, so it could only be one other.

"Correct! This is quite intriguing. For someone to assimilate my, Giles and that Emiya fellow's legends. Quite astonishing really."

"Umm, not to be rude, but if you wanna talk, can we please do it some other time? I'm kinda busy at the moment," Marco rebutted.

"Ah, yes, yes, saving the world and all that, terribly sorry," Prelati said though his tone implied he didn't really care all that much. "Anyway, Wat yoo ned ta doo ish."

"Quit talking with your mouth full… wait what are you even eating?!" Marco asked, beguiled.

The sound of someone sipping an empty drink through a straw was heard. "Don't worry about that," Prelati replied after a moment. "Anyway, as I was saying, you need to activate your last skill, Affections of the Goddess', it'll give you the final boost you need."

"Affections of the Goddess'?" As Marco voiced it out loud, he felt another surge of power flow through him. All of his parameters surged once again, and he felt the yes indeed he could keep this going. "How did you even know about that?"

"Oh, my teachers asked me to pass it along to you," Prelati replied easily, "Der bery hecsited to meet yoo." He said as he filled his mouth with food once again.

"Dude, stop talking with your mouth full, also what's this about your teachers?" Marco asked as he kept the creeping flesh virus that was the Tree's commonsense from spreading any further.

"So sorry," Prelati replied, yet again his tone replied he was anything but, "Yes though my Teachers would like to speak to you at some point."

Now that he had more prana to work with Marco could put pretty much all of his focus on the conversation. "Why and who are they?"

"I don't know 'why', I didn't exactly get the chance to ask. As for who they are… well, they aren't the type to be crossed. Which reminds me, is my other self really that good a lay?"

Marco was dumbfounded for a moment. "Dude! Why would you even ask that?!"

"Curiosity," Prelati admitted. "I mean you slept with her repeatedly for eight years so the sex must be good, but I can't help but wonder how good."

Marco shook his head. "Dude. No, just no. I'm not talking about this with you."

"Why not? I'm 'me'." Prelati pouted.

"That's why! It's weird."

"Oh I'm sorry, I wanted to hear if the other me was good at sex or not. Didn't know that was a crime," Prelati snarked back.

"Thanks very much for your help, can I go back to killing the tree abomination please?" Marco bit out.

Prelati sighed before he replied, "Fi~ne!"

Feeling the mage recede, Marco was able to focus back on the fight. Things had taken a turn for the strange. The abominable tree was now bearing fruit. Fruit that once it ripened fell to the ground, and once it connected to the earth, rapidly mutated into slithering flesh beasts. The closest thing Marco could equate them to was a mix of mollusk, overly fat pig, and a giant squid. Their mouths full of slime covered feelers, they pulled themselves along the ground by suction cup and spike laden limbs, leaving a trail of goo behind them as their flesh colored bodies were dragged across the ground. They groaned and let off a foul brimstone like stench, as they made their way towards him.

"Trace On!" He shouted as Naegling along with a giant axe-sword roughly hewn from stone popped up in both of his hands. According to the history of said axe-sword it was used by a Berserker Class Herakles during, the Fifth Holy Grail War, carved from the pillars of his temple from Greece and used as both a summoning catalyst and weapon enhanced to withstand both his swings and the blows of fellow Servants by the best Alchemy the Einzbern family could perform.

Hefting both weapons with next to no difficulty thanks to his enhanced strength, Marco charged into the hoard of fledgling abominations, and then spun on his heel allowing his momentum and weight of his weapons to do his work for him. Neagling pulped and pulverized anything it came into contact with. Heads limbs, torso's all were turned into a grimy spray beneath its might. While the axe-sword ground and crushed all that stood before it into a smear or elaborate stain on the asphalt. By the time Marco stopped spinning dozens of abominations lay dead on the ground, but even more had risen to take their place. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and decided he and Star needed to get to the root of the problem.

"Hey Star!"

"Yeah babe?! Little busy here?!" She called back still in her ethereally powerful Dipped Down state as she swerved to avoid a swiping clawed tree limb that tried to gore her.

"New plan, we tagteam this stupid tree and take it down at the same time."

"Sounds good!" Star affirmed.

"But first we need to stop it from spawning these wretches. So you have to." Marco paused to cut down one such cretin that got too close to him. "You have to use Artemis' Noble Phantasm."

"Umm, okay, I think I can do that if you can keep this damn branches off of me for like, five seconds!" Star yelled out as she blasted away at a mass of branches that threatened to envelope her in a thorn strewn embrace.

"Can do, hold on." Marco reached into his offering satchels with some reluctance and pulled out two offerings. The broken shard of a spearhead, and a large Firedrake Egg that was half the size of an ostrich egg. 'I was really hoping I would never need to use these again but...' He placed the egg on the ground and pulled the binding cloth off with his free hand revealing his black twisted right arm to the world before he slammed the spear fragment into the ground with his twisted limb. 'Once a mage of Avalon, always a mage of Avalon.'

From the earth sprouted twisted jagged iron spears. Dozens of them that fanned out in a cone formation. First three, then six, twelve, twenty four, forty eight, and more and more besides. The half human offspring of Fuminori and Saya were gored on the spears that sprouted from the earth, like hogs on spits. They were kept proudly on display, their yellow blood trickling down the shafts.

"MONSTER! BABY KILLER! WE'LL FEAST ON YOUR MARROW!" Fuminori and Saya cried out together.

Marco didn't pay them one ounce of attention. Instead he took the Firedrake Egg, Drew magic from it, and cast his spell. Cannons of earth and molten fire rose up from his magic circle and began lobbing flaming projectiles at the branches of the bloody bone tree. They struck with booming force, enough to send whole tree limbs clattering to the ground. Green ichor spewed forth from the broken limbs, causing both Saya and Fuminori groaned in pain.

"Now Star!"

"Okay…" Star's form began to glow with iridescent moonlight before she raised her bow and called out the name of Artemis' Noble Phantasm.

"Child," Artemis' voice called out to Star. "Let your love for the boy fill you, let my love for Orion, and yours for your beloved become like an arrow, let me guide your hand," she said as Star pulled back on the bow creating the biggest moonlit arrow yet. "Good, good, now say it with me child of the stars," Artemis said.

"Tri-Star Amore Mio!" Both Goddess and vessel said at the same time as they loosened their combined love for their significant others at the foes who would see them harmed. The arrow streaked through the sky, a brilliant bolt of condensed moonlight and it struck the two maniacal lovers right in their conjoined faces. Splitting the tree right down the middle. Due to Star being under the effects of Dip Down and adding her own love for Marco on top of Artemis' for Orion, the Noble Phantasm was two grades higher than it should be. Going from A+ to A++.

Yet the attack left Star well and truly spent, she floated to the ground, shifted out of her Mewberty form and went completely back to normal as she did so. Yet Saya and Fuminori were still not dead.

"Sa...Saya!" One half of the broken tree called out to the other as green sappy ichor spewed from the bifurcated mess.

"FuMiNori-kun." Saya wailed, now separated from him her voice had regained that screeching keening quality. Yet despite the fact they had been split down the middle, squid-like tendrils were bursting out of the ooze, attempting to pull the two deranged lovers back together.

Marco for his part, caught Star before she hit the ground. She looked pale and her forehead was covered in a veil of sweat. Yet despite that she smiled at him and asked, "Did I get em?"

Marco smiled and nodded. "You sure did Star. I'm gonna put you over here where it's safe and finish this okay?"

"Mmhm thanks Marco." Star said tiredly as he leaned her up against the base of a lamppost. Just as he was about to turn, she heard him call his name, "Hey Marco? Kick those bitches ass for the both of us yeah?" she said smiling and giving a weak thumbs up.

It was a gesture he returned. "Will do." He turned away from her and the grin fell from his face, and any form of amusement from his eyes with it. Marco had had enough. He gave a shrill whistle calling for the hound of Nodens he summoned a while back, It ripped through space-time and sat on its haunches, waiting for his command. "Protect Star."

The Hound growled at the sight of the malformed freakish thing in its vision but did as bidden and trotted over to the blonde one its summoner had no doubt claimed as its mate, and laid down across her legs. Both to prevent her from moving and to snap at anything foolish enough to enter the range of its bite.

Marco then focused his gaze on the Abomination Tree. The thing that had become of Saya and Fuminori Sakisaka. It was a gigantic twisted testament to their black love to each other, and it needed to be destroyed. The only problem was, Marco would need an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm to take out something that large.

'I suppose I could try using 'that.' He thought. 'I have more Prana than Archer ever did, and if anyone could understand the ununderstandable, it would be me.'

So he began with the steps.

Judging the concept of creation.

It was created by the planet, Gaia itself. Meant to be used as a deterrent to foreign hostile entities. It is the crystalized prayer known as Glory.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

It takes the shape of a magnificent broadsword, covered in gold and blue enamel.

Duplicating the composition material.

Faith, will, desire to claim victory, ideals, all forged and folded into a physical blade.

Imitating the skill of its making.

Ideals of humanity became the billet which was heated in the core of the planet, shaped by the hands of the Fae, into perfection.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

It was used to carve out a perfect kingdom after the fall of Rome. A kingdom which did not last, and which choked and drowned in its own blood.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

Twelve thousand years old at least. It First saw use in defeating the physical body of Sefar Atilla the Hun.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

A blade sharpened on human desire to survive, to defend and grant peace to the people, a Sword that Promised Victory whenever it was swung, and its name was…

In a flash of brilliant golden light, Excalibur unveiled itself to the world once more. The sword of Promised Victory was held aloft by its new bearer, who took two steps forward as motes of golden light both coalested and filled up the blade. "Ex-"

"What?" Fuminori said in shock.

"IS ThaT?!" Saya finished.

"Marco…" Star said in awed tones as she watched the golden light of a true star envelop her beloved.

"Calibur!" Marco finished bringing the blade down in a glorious arc, as a beam of pure gold followed in the wake of his swing.

"Saya," Fuminori whispered to his beloved.

"FUmiNori," Saya replied, locking her eye with his.

"I love you." They both said at the same time as the golden light washed over them, destroying both their form, and the house which they resided in near completely. A golden beam shot up into the heavens and when it cleared, there was almost nothing charred husk remains of both the house and the Abomination Tree swayed in the air, and his right arm ached in pain. As if in anticipation for what came next.

Marco approached the tree and placed his right hand on it. He didn't bother flipping a coin this time, for he knew there was no saving these two even if he did turn them back to normal. To sacrifice, was the only option. He placed his right hand on the base of the bloody bone tree and slowly drew the cannibal and shoggoth both, souls conjoined body and all, into his cursed right arm, their horrifically deformed body breaking down into particles of light that were then absorbed into his right hand, while in his left hand, Excalibur shattered like glass. Once the deed was finally done he fell to his knees as Delusional Illusion finally faded away, the will of Gaia finally noticing and overpowering it. Yet it was fine, because all was taken care of. The threat was gone, the world was safe.

"Marco?" Star called over since the blasted dog wouldn't get off of her. "You alright?"

Marco, his breath coming out in hot, heavy gasps, and steaming in the night air, nodded. "Yeah, my left arm feels like it's on fire, and my right feels like it is a foreign object at this point, but other than that I'm good."

Star leaned back against the lamppost. "What happened to those two? Like what did you do?" The princess asked.

Marco sighed, "I sacrificed them Star, absorbing them into my right arm and increasing my own power in the process. It's what I… the Sorcerers of Avalon were taught to do."

Star nodded solemnly before grinned like a madwoman. "We did it! Wanna go back to our hotel room and celebrate?"

Marco couldn't help but laugh. "Star, is that all you can think about? Sex?"

"No!" She said defensively, her face as red as her cheek emblems making them almost invisible, "It's just I've got this annoying goddess whose in love with love stuck in my friggin' head, that, and fighting kinda makes me, you know…"

"Horny?" Marco guessed. "If that's the case then how come you never, you know, made a move on me?" he asked as he limped his way over to her.

"Oh I wanted to, really badly a couple of times, but first I had a crush on Oscar, then you clearly had a thing for Jackie… I mean there were times when I wanted to take you into your room and ravage you. Or have you ravage me, I would've been fine with whatever." Star replied tiredly, her mind easily coming up with fantasies due to her exhaustion. "It got worse after I went through Mewberty honestly. Heh, damn teenage hormones."

"Is that part of the reason you were so annoyed at Jackie and me dating?" Marco asked, slumping down like a sack of potatoes next to her. "You had an itch you couldn't get scratched?"

"That was part of it, but I also really liked you Marco, and I do really like you, I'm super, super, super glad everything worked out with Jackie."

"Yeah… I think we should get outta here before the cops show up? We can go back to our hotel room and sleep?"

Star sighed. "Sounds lovely… you might have to carry me. I'm wiped out from using Tri-Star Amore Mio."

"Can do." He gave a shrill whistle, and moved his thumb behind his head, the universal sign for. 'Move it.' The Noden's hound obeyed and Marco smiled at him, "Good boy, I'll call again if I need you okay Snuffles?"

The cone snouted canine nodded before it loosened a howl, and faded into the ether. Marco then forced himself to his feet and caused his left arm to burn even more than it already was, reinforced his muscles and limbs once again, and before picking Star up in a bridal carry and making their way towards their hotel room. He let out a long suffering sigh mid step.

"What's wrong Marco?" Star asked from her bastion of safety that was his arms.

To which he replied. "The car, it got blown up when I used Excalibur… how the hell are we going to explain that to the rental place?"

Star let out a tired peal of laughter, before she pulled herself up and kissed Marco on the lips. "Worry about it later Marco. For right now, let's just go and… rest."

"Okay."

For a time that is exactly what they did.

Marco was awoken by the feeling of Star peppering his face with light kisses. "Marc~o." She called his name like a siren's song. "Wake up my little mulberry."

Marco opened his eyes slowly blearlily, everything came into focus and he found Star leaning over him, her golden locks forming a canopy around them both. She smiled at him, before she kissed him on the lips. "Good morning darling."

"Hey Star," he replied with a smile when she pulled back. "How did you sleep?"

"Good, got a solid sixteen hours."

Marco's eyes widened, "We overslept! We should've been out of here four hours ag-" He was silenced when Star placed her lips over his. "I took care of it, my Mulberry, don't worry about it."

When she pulled away, Marco nodded. "Okay," He looked at the digital clock that read 12:30PM. "We were out for awhile, huh?"

Star laid her head down on his chest as she nodded and stroked his arm languidly with her hand. "Yeah. That was one helluva fight Marco. I've never been so wiped out after one before."

"Yeah…" Marco said as he absentmindedly stroked Star's hair. "Hey Star?"

"Hmm?" The Princess asked, letting him know he had her attention.

Marco cleared his throat a little awkwardly before he broached the topic. "When you say you're into BDSM, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Whaddaya mean? Isn't it just one thing?" She asked.

Marco shook his head. "No, it's an entire subculture which is further divided into several distinct groups. BDSM stands for Bondage, Dominance Submission, Sadism, and Masochism." It's really three different things mashed together to form an acronym.

Star blinked then went, "OOoh! I see… Well Sadism and Masochism don't really appeal to me, I mean, I enjoy fighting monsters but I've never liked the thought of killing them, with Toffee being a notable exception. I also don't think you have a sadistic bone in your body, and I'm not a fan of pain during sex anyway. In a fight it's to be expected but I'd like to avoid it in the bedroom."

Marco nodded, that made sense. "Okay so you mentioned you liked the idea of subbing, and that leaves bondage on the table."

"Yep." Star said, popping the 'p'. She glanced up at him from where she was using his chest as a pillow. "Are you okay with that?"

"Sure, there's a ton of stuff in just the Dom and Sub culture we can try but there's also some I'll just outright refuse to do," Marco replied having gotten out his phone by this point.

"Like?" Star inquired.

"Public humiliation, trampling, whipping, corporal punishment, cuckolding, golden showers and I'm more than a bit iffy on human objectification," Marco replied as he scrolled through the wikipedia article on Dom and Sub culture.

Star nodded. "Yeah that's a bit far for my questions, one, what does that leave us with, and two what's a golden shower."

"Resistance play, which would be me forcing you to do something against your will, domestic servitude or sexual slavery, it's basically you roleplaying as housemaid…"

"So basically what Hekapoo's been doing this whole time?" Star asked, winking at Marco.

He flushed but smiled a bit. "Basically. There's also verbal humiliation which is basically dirty talk, fetishes..." He sighed before he continued, "Crossdressing."

"You've already done that one haven't you, Princess Turdina?" Star said with a chuckle.

"Quiet you," Marco said with a bit of force and command in his tone.

"Woah!" Star said, a shiver running down her spine, "That was…"

"Oh Sorry Star, I have to use that on Franchesca sometimes when she gets out of line and..."

Star cut him off. "So hot! Is that your Dom voice?"

Marco flushed a little. "Sort of yeah,"

Star purred like a cat that just had her ears scratched. "Mmm, me likey. You didn't answer my second question."

Marco grimaced as he replied. "Peeing on someone Star."

Star's own face scrunched up into one of distaste. "Eww, no."

"Agreed, also if we're going to do this, we should have a safeword. That way if you think I'm going too far or I feel uncomfortable going any further we can say that and stop, and it has to be something that wouldn't normally be said during sex."

Star tapped her chin with a finger. "Hmm, I didn't realize D&S was so complex… Well, how about Underestimated? It's my unofficial queenly title."

"Star the Underestimated huh? Has a certain ring to it. So do you wanna try subbing right now? Since you've rented the room."

Star grinned as she leaned up over him. "Why, I thought you'd never ask my Mulberry King. Where do we start?"

(Lemon Start)

The initial play of events were a stalemate to begin with, both passionate but equally clueless on how to begin. Marco had roared like the lion but right at this moment, staring at Star in that gorgeous sea green dress of hers that made everything just look so hot…

"Marco?" Star asked, breaking the lull in the battlelines. Both sides had weapons drawn but that hesitant sound in her voice, the way her legs shook as they barely concealed the slight drip coming down her pale thigh…

Welp, it was the light that set off the gunpowder in his libido. He hadn't a clue how to treat this strong person like an object but fuck… He was going to enjoy figuring it out.

"Get up," Marco demanded. Star jumped at the barked command so stared at him like a deer through headlights. Her mind wasn't in the game. Marco glared at her, not sure where this 'other' person was coming from. It made her visibly shiver, a powerful one like an aftershock of pleasure that made every inch of her body tremble, her knees shake like a leaf caught in the hurricane of her lover's control as it ran down her spine as she hastened to obey his command.

"Is this okay Marco…" Star started to say as she started pulling at her dress with excited, nervous fingers, all shaking so hard she looked like a child trying to put on her clothes.

"Master."

"Marco?" Star said, the abrupt statement was confusing with all the heat between them. All it served to do was make more of that fountain like female lubrication drip.

Another rational thought, Marco Diaz as a person chipped away. The safe kid was sent around the back of the barn with a shotgun and libido murdered him. Libido took his new duties as the rational one with zeal. He signalled to Marco junior to get ready to invade and assumed the role of master.

"M-a-s-t-e-r," he repeated slowly, looking at her sharply, his arms folded.

"Marco, I don't know what you…"

Marco stormed up to her and simply yanked off her dress in one full tug. He pulled her naked ass cheek to his crotch so they were face to face. Her breath seemed to quicken like a revved motorcycle engine, stuttery yet all you needed to know was that ass cheek was connected to a pair of soaked red panties, all frilly and very much not what she usually wore. The matching bra was tight, a size too small easily and it showed, her fine derriere and breasts were equally confined but showing her readiness to reproduce. Her nipples were already sharp enough to break steel and the wetness was turning her panties darker.

"Here, you call me master, servant."

"Marco? I'm not… Eep!" Her confusion was cleared away by the extremely sharp slap on her touche. She jumped but was held down even when standing, her freedom restricted by his tight hold. He looked at her again, his eyes telling her a story of how everything she was, everything Star Butterfly symbolised as a person no longer existed. Even moving against her will when being admonished was not allowed.

"Servant," Marco stated blandly, slapping her again on the ass. She jumped but held it to a minimum, forcing herself to catch her jump by the tips of her toes and back onto her heels by sheer painful force.

"Master?" she asked carefully, eyes glistening slightly from the punishment.

"Good servant," Marco complimented, rubbing her hair like a dog. She tensed at the gesture until she realised she was being rewarded. She melted into the role of the submissive with frightening ease. She leaned in and enjoyed his soft touch.

"Master?" Star said, sounding like she was testing the word on her tongue. "Master!" she added, seemingly coming to terms with it by hugging him. She rubbed her crotch against his leg, stimulating herself. Libido was not amused at this blatant violation and Marco batted her aside accordingly. The girl stopped stiffly.

"I decide," Marco stated, opening up his shirt and popped the button of his pants. He didn't say anything else, just opened his arms out as if to embrace her.

Star silently and very hesitantly approached him. Each step felt like a land mine that failed to go off for the submissive woman. She carefully found her way to the man of her dreams and then almost reverently took off his shirt. Star did move to put her fingers against her own panties, the stickiness bothering her but stopped like she was scalded. She actually glared at her own hand then continued the job. She did exactly as her master had insinuated, the vagueness keeping her on edge as her master quietly had planned.

Marco had raised the laser puppies the same way he was training Star. She was a loud, extroverted person who had never really had any sort of authority figure to really keep her in line. Neither had the puppies. The process of reward and punish worked here too. Star for all her power to utterly destroy him down to his smallest molecule was nearly whimpering at Marco's lack of doing anything.

The power trip was intoxicating.

Star continued her task by removing his pants. When she nearly pulled down the boxers at the same time Marco saw a moment to remind her who was in charge.

"Ahh!" Star moaned when his hand shot out and captured one of her breasts. He kneaded it hard. It was not painful but instead a deadly mixture of pleasure and discomfort. She was floored by his reprimand, whining when he didn't let go. "Master?" Her strong voice had already degenerated into a whispering song of submission. She searched frantically for why the master (Marco had vanished from every thought. It was just master now like it was the only way she had ever spoken to the man she loved had been that title) was displeased. Marco showed no pity or sympathy to her plight. She squealed when she realised her mistake and frantically rectified it. His boxers were put back up and his pants came down. "Your leg please master." Marco pinched her nipple. "I mean your left leg please." Marco magnanimously acceded to her request and lifted his foot. She asked again, quieter as he hadn't removed the pressure that was making her breast turn red. When it was all done, Marco patted her on the head again.

"Satisfactory servant," he said dismissively, "Master will reward you now." His powers created this obscene scarlet coloured collar, all fabric, flowery so it stood out in the middle of a blackout with blind people. In the middle was a heart shaped sapphire gemstone which when the limited light caught turned it into a traffic light on LSD. "Ownership," he intoned, clipping it around her neck. "State your purpose when the master and servant are alone."

"... To… Serve master?"

"Is that a question or a declaration?" Marco asked, voice hard as granite.

"To serve my master in every way that matters!" she said with pomp, mimicking it seem like some sort of knighting ceremony. She was a princess and had probably seen more than a few.

"Good girl," Marco rewarded, patting her on the head and gently forcing her to her knees. He gripped her waist, turning her over so she was on the bed, butt up, legs dangling. "Here's to sealing the oath.

Libido by this point had led an armed rebellion and locked up Marco as anything other than a lust machine into a tower guarded by every emotion that promoted reproduction.

"Master?"

Marco stopped and seeing as she hadn't made an error allowed her to make an enquiry.

"You may speak servant."

"Protection… I mean I need to make sure I'm using…"

The man stopped, breaking character by blushing at the faux pas. He swallowed hard and resumed his act. Libido had been besieged but had taken control again after a brief rebellion.

"Next time I expect you to be prepared already," Marco ordered, "Servants who get fertilised are useless during certain periods and I must have alternatives while you are unable to do your duties."

"I'm sorry master!" Star said, swallowed by her submissiveness. The girl presented her ass for punishment, pulling down her own panties just to show her sincerity. Marco broke character again to blink then normal services resumed as his reason and logic only agreed that the Servant had to know what to do when she broke the rules. He spanked her hard on both cheeks then tore off her panties. He presented the ruined articles, seeing the material had caused a burn on her asshole by accident from the elastic. He promised to make it up later for that one.

"Put this in your mouth. It's the only bodily fluid you're allowed to drink tonight."

Star did as she told, stuffing it like a starving person. Marco figured the dirty talk was pointless now and just did as he was allowed to do. He took his liberties with his servant.

The man opened up her vaginal lips and pretended to inspect her for purity. The process seemed to arouse her as her womb descended eagerly to meet his inspection.

Star muffled something and magic seemed to sparkle around her body. Marco spanked her for her lateness in making sure she was using contraceptives and then pulled his boxers down. His dick leapt out and touched her lips making her shiver. He then gently pushed in, taking his time to enjoy her until he bottomed out. The purpose of her gag was made clear when she screamed at her hymen being penetrated.

This time, Marco really broke character. She couldn't see his face, painfully aware he'd stolen her virginity but he'd followed through by spanking her for making noises she wasn't permitted to make. Star squealed like a car braking hard on a slippery road until she shuddered and oragsmed on the spot, her pussy squeezing his dick hard.

"Bad servant!" Marco scolded, grabbing her hair and pulling her up so her blue eyes stared up at him all doe like. "Servants do not cum before their masters and the mess on my dick hasn't been unnoticed anyway. You will now…" He gripped onto her hair and pulled her back, sliding her on his dick. He did it twice more before letting go.

Star did not stop.

Marco could finally let go of the act as Star essentially did all the work. Marco got to enjoy her at his control, doing everything in her power to make her master cum. She was so devoted to the task, so eager that Marco started wishing he had put a hoop on that collar so he could take her for a walk and… Wow, where had that come from? It was like his horniness was feeding her own. She was all worked up so much that her eyes were welded shut, her breathing through her nose, the only avenue in which to do so with the gag made her sound like a whistle on a steam train as she pounded his and hers brains out. It was safe to say the sight of her being essentially an onahole set him off.

The hero came hard. The princess came hard, whimpering as fresh hot semen entered her nubile, submissive self. Her back craned back in glee as her reward was given to her fresh from the factory. She crooned hard, her open mouth spitting out the gag as she gasped in utter serenity. Her smile was beaming, shining like the sun Marco thought she was ever since entering his life. The act was gone now, the first dress rehearsal of their new sexual endeavours coming to an end. Marco, the safe kid, had arranged an ambush and stuffed libido into a jar so he could only fuel the dying embers of their mating.

Marco collapsed on top of his new lover, shedding the skin of master and becoming Marco again. He kissed her hard, surprising her but she moaned in agreement. The duo melted into one another, exhausted but so close that it didn't matter. The drip of Star's freshly fucked pussy squelched victoriously on Marco's middle but he couldn't care less.

The love story of Marco Diaz and Star Butterfly, princess of his heart, had turned another page.

(Lemon End)

Cleaning up took longer than expected because they both decided to 'get dirty' again only to have to clean up again. Once they were finally cleaned up and had their clothes back on Marco asked, "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah, also don't worry about the car, I handled it with some of my allowance," Star informed him.

"You get an allowance from your parents?" Marco asked, this was the first he's heard of this.

Star nodded. "Fifty crowns a month, It's not much but it's helpful in a pinch. Like if I'm out clubbing in the Bounce Lounge or something."

"Star that's gold. It's worth a lot on Earth. Like a couple thousand dollars an ounce."

Star's eyes got big. "Whoa… so I'm like rich in Earth terms then?"

"If you sell what you've got to the right people yeah, but money shouldn't be a problem in the future. Francesca taught me quite a bit while I was with her. Including how to pull trace amounts of gold up from the earth."

"Testify! That's so cool Marco. So home then?" Star asked.

Marco thought about it then shook his head, as he started searching for something on his phone. "No actually, there's some things I've been meaning to do and I might as well do it now if that's alright with you?"

"Sure totally, totally," Star agreed, nodding her head. "Where to?" she asked as Marco cut open a portal with his dimensional scissors.

"Ohh, what's this place?" Star asked as they stepped out of the portal in front of a large stone building that had the word Cosco standing out on it in big bold red letters, with a couple of birds nests had been created in holes in the O's in the sign protecting the birds from the elements for the most part.

"It's a bulk food store, where people buy food in bulk. My parents shop here a lot. C'mon." Marco said grabbing a cart and heading inside.

"Okay cool, but why're we here? Were you going to pick up groceries?" The blonde asked.

Marco shook his head, "No, not exactly. See when I went to see your dad the other day, he gave his blessing by the way," Hearing that made Star both beam and blush at the same time, "We entered into a trade agreement of sorts."

"You and Papa did? Behind mom's back? He could get banished to the couch for this, or worse, your house," Star said, shocked.

Marco chuckled. "It was a risk he was willing to take, but anyway, since Mewni is currently running into a corn shortage no thanks to Toffee and Ludo, who we should both really consider doing something about, he asked me to get supplies from Earth in return for payment."

Star kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for helping out my people even after my mom acted like a raging sandwich beast Marco."

"You're welcome Star. I figured since you're with me you can help me pick out things your dad and the other Mewmans would like."

"Totally, totally, totally." Star said nodding. "Okay first things first. Corn Dogs."

Marco blinked "Corn dogs?"

"Yes! They're amazing! Why did it take Janna of all people getting me one of those to know the wonder of the corn dog?!" Star retorted smacking him playfully on the arm.

"Sorry, sorry, I just thought you might like to try other, non corn related things. Okay so corn dogs. Anything else?"

"Triangle food!" Star declared imperiously. "It's taste and dogma must be spread to the masses!"

Marco smirked. "Okay so corn chips and I'm sure we can find plenty of salsa and cheese dip around here. It won't be my Super Special Nachos but it'll be something."

"Can we get lots of burritos too?" Star asked, like a child who really wanted candy.

"I'm getting the feeling you just want to introduce Mexican food to Mewni Star," Marco said with a slight smile on his face.

"I do! Mexican food, especially when you or your mom makes it, is amazing!" Star replied. "Plus, we need to show Mewni and my darling mother, just what they're missing out on by choosing not to ally with us, my king."

"As my queen commands so shall it be," Marco said with a mock bow.

The duo ended up filling up eight different carts filled to near overflowing with mexican food, corn dogs, and at Marco's insistence at variety, italian food, specifically lasagna. One cart was filled with nothing but bags of tortilla chips, dip, and salsa. The total for all of this was six-hundred-fifty-dollars. Marco was a bit short due to paying for their car rental and hotel room, so Star chipped in a gold crown, causing the cashier, a youngish man with a name tag that said "Mark Stow" to gap at it for a moment before saying, "Umm, I don't think I've got change for this ma'am."

"Don't worry about it. Keep the change," Star replied happily.

"Ri~ght. I'm just gonna set you guys up with a line of store credit yeah? Since I'm the manager and all."

"Thanks… Marco whats store credit?" Star asked innocently.

"It's where you can come into a place and buy stuff for free but only as long as the line of credit lasts Star," Marco explained.

"Cool!"

"Mark, that greased up deaf guy is streaking down aisle six again!" Someone hollered to him.

"Ah, motherfucker! Where's Betsy?! Where's ma fuckin' shotgun when ah need her?!" The man swore.

"Boss we've talked about this, you can't shoot people with a shotgun, that could get us sued!" One of the other cashiers complained,

"I'm gonna use bean bag shot, relax Bubba. Marshall, man the counter till I flush this bugger out!"

"You're not gonna catch me!" A greased up naked deaf man said as he streaked down the frozen food aisle. As a small mountain of a man who for some reason was wearing a chicken suit, came and took his place.

"Why're you?" Star began.

"Wearing a chicken suit? We're having a sale on chicken today and the boss thought this would be a good way to adver-" He didn't get to finish as he was suddenly assaulted by a portly man in glasses who started punching him in the face. To his credit though, Marshall gave as good as he got, kneeing the man in the crotch before beating him over the head with a frozen chicken, while yelling, "For, the third. Fucking. Time. Mr. Griffin. I am not. The Chicken guy!"

Bubba just sighed and walked up behind the portly man named Griffin and jabbed in the kidney with a taser, he collapsed on the floor. At that point, the man turned to Marco and Star saying, "We don't get paid enough to work here,"

"We're just gonna… Go." Marco said after a moment.

"Yeah get outta here already, yer holding up the line."

"Get the fook outta me bloody store ya bloody cunt!" Mark yelled before he fired a blast of rubber pellets at the fleeing greased up streaker as he fled towards the exit. "An 'stay oot ya fookin' Bawbag!" He turned to Star and Marco and said slightly out of breath, "You all have a nice day and come back anytime now."

"Yeah we sure will!" Star promised. "This place is even more interesting than Questbuy," She said before leading the way outside, where Marco cut open a portal home.

It had been an odd couple of days, but all's well that ends well. Marco still had tons of questions. Like Why did the Sacred Chalice appear where it did? What does Hekapoo know about it, and most importantly how is he going to sneak all this damn food to River without Moon knowing about it? But all that can wait a beat, because he was finally heading home to relax after saving a parallel world.

Word Count: 20,831 Number of Pages: 49 Date Completed: 7/17/2020

AN: Hello loyal readers! I am back with Unlimited Eldritch Blade Works. Snowy had the Wuhan virus so this chapter had some difficulty getting finished. He survived though don't worry. Also thanks to Helison for guest writing the lemon and possible future lemons in this fic.

I am very much alive thank you bubba. Now I have to use my dark powers to work OVERTIME!

Yes folks Snowy has survived the dreaded Corvid19. And with his survival more work shall be coming forthwith. Look forward to it. Till next time everyone this has been an IcySnowSage and Bubbajack Production! Peace!