"Magus" – Talking
'Master' – Thoughts
"Monster" – Duel Spirits and other beasts talking
'Spirit' – Duel Spirits and other beasts thinking
"Magecraft" – Spells
[Servant] – Bond/Mental speak
Disclaimer: I don't own the Fate series, the Yugioh series, or any of their characters. I only own the plot of this story and Desmond Blake.
Holy Grail War Saga
Fourth Holy Grail War Arc
Chapter 7 – …Everybody Dies!
10:25 PM, October 5th, 1994, Ryuudou Temple, Mt. Enzou, Fuyuki City, Japan
(Artoria's POV)
Climbing up the steps that led to the Ryuudou Temple at the summit of Mt. Enzou, Artoria keeps her guard up and her senses open for any sign of movement. With Irisviel by her side, she has to make sure to protect the homunculus. Even if Caster already knows that Kiritsugu is her real Master, she can't be too careless. Part of her believes that the brunette would not harm Irisviel – the revealing of his knowledge of the ruse to them showed his noble character. Another part of her, however, reminds Artoria that he is a Magus, one from ancient times, and thus quite cunning. As much as he irritated her, Merlin at least made sure to teach her to not trust someone who practices Magecraft at face value.
Reaching the top of the steps, Artoria and Iri immediately take notice of Berserker standing across them on the other side of the front yard of the temple.
"Oh, you're finally here? About time."
Hearing someone speak to them, she and Iri look at the roof of the temple from where the voice came from. Both of them gasp and their eyes widen at the sight of the speaker.
Artoria had seen many things during her life and she knew of the existence of demons – her court mage was technically a type of demon after all – but she had never seen someone so… demonic before.
"Who are you?" she asks the demoness, though Saber makes sure to keep an eye on Berserker. For someone who attacked her so violently at the docks, the Servant of Madness hasn't even twitched since she and Iri arrived.
Looking down on her – figuratively and literally – the demoness hums. "Hm, you are royalty. Not one I recognize, but my Master does respect you, so I must at least show some respect."
The demoness stands up from where she had been sitting on the roof of the temple and drops down, floating to Berserker's side. Then, the demoness puts her right foot forward, her right hand to her chest, and gives a small, respectful bow.
"Artoria Pendragon, King of Albion, I am Yubel, Knight of the Supreme King."
Saber narrows her eyes in a glare, "Supreme King? I have never heard of such a person."
Unlike when Gilgamesh's and Iskander's identities were spoken, the Grail did not bring forward any information about this 'Supreme King'. And with her confusion came also a great annoyance. Here is another person calling themselves king and stating that they're above others; even above other kings. Gilgamesh, from their short interaction, showed much of the same attitude.
'Were the principles of chivalry and honor really only followed during my time?' she thinks to herself. It's a thought that has come across her mind from time to time. It first came up after her meeting Kiritsugu Emiya; the man simply didn't have a spec of honor or chivalry in him. Irisviel had given her some hope, but – and it hurt to talk bad about her friend, no matter how short their friendship has been – what little nobility the woman has is dropped in favor of following her husband's lead, Saber had found out.
Meeting and fighting Lancer had been a breath of fresh air and made her think that maybe the lack of honor and chivalry in the modern times was a problem of the changing of the times. Gilgamesh though had changed her mind. From what his legend said of him, he was a respectable king in childhood, but grew into a neglectful one in his teens and then into a tyrant in adulthood, after the death of his friend Enkidu.
Learning of Gilgamesh's descent into tyranny made her realize that maybe her time was the only era where the knight's code was followed. Hearing of another person showing off their arrogance in calling themselves above other kings only made that fact more apparent in her mind.
"I'd be surprised if you had heard of him," mockingly says the demoness, Yubel she introduced herself as.
Deciding to change the subject, Saber looks at Berserker. She wonders about their sudden calmness in her presence after how they reacted at the docks. She quickly deduces that it must be the work of either Yubel, Caster, or their Master. She's about to ask when Iri starts to whisper.
"Saber, I think I know Caster's identity," Irisviel says quietly so only she can hear.
Keeping her eyes on Yubel and Berserker, she makes her inquiry just as quietly. As she does so, she mentally bemoans the fact that Irisviel isn't her real Master and thus can't communicate telepathically with her.
"Are you sure, Irisviel?"
"Yes, and Yubel's presence is the biggest clue to his identity. There is only one Magus famous for summoning Demons after all."
As she thinks Irisviel's sentence over, the Grail gives her the name of the person in question.
"Faust."
"Yes, which would make Yubel most likely Mephistopheles."
10:29 PM, October 5th, 1994, Ryuudou Temple, Mt. Enzou, Fuyuki City, Japan
(Yubel's POV)
It took a good part of her strong will to not scowl in anger at the False King and the Homunculus. Much like her King had foreseen, their enemies are confusing her King for the infamous Magus called Johannes Georg Faust and herself for the demon he summoned. A great part of her is incredibly angry at the fact that they could mistake her King's identity for anyone else than the Supreme King.
The lesser part of her though, the part that knows the advantages of tricking your enemy, that keeps her anger at bay. She's a Fiend; cunning and trickery are her bread and butter. That's the part of her that she must focus on over her loyalty to her King at the moment.
Mentally composing herself, Yubel continues with the act that her King tasked her to perform until he's finished with his part.
"Oh, you are quite smart, Irisviel von Einzbern," she interrupts their conversation. At their looks of surprise, she snorts. "I'm a Fiend, mortals. My hearing is much better than yours, of course."
Then, with a grin, she adds, "By the way, it is pronounced Mephisto. Pheles. Whoever wrote that legend must have missed that." She then shrugs, "Can't expect much from a human, I guess."
"Now," she continues before the two can speak. "My dear Faust has prepared a surprise for you, Artoria Pendragon." She gestures to Berserker to her left. "I believe you two have some history." With a snap of her fingers, Berserker drops the Noble Phantasm that hides his identity and Yubel hears the shocked gasp that leaves the False King's mouth.
"Since your knightly friend can't speak at the moment, allow me to make introductions," she says to the confused Homunculus. "I present to you the Black Knight of Britannia, the only one to ever equal King Arthur in swordsmanship…"
Grinning maliciously as she focused on the blonde knight, she took in all of her delicious shock and denial clearly shown on her face.
"…Lancelot du Lac!"
10:33 PM, October 5th, 1994, Ryuudou Temple, Mt. Enzou, Fuyuki City, Japan
(Kiritsugu's POV)
Infiltrating the temple had been easier than Kiritsugu had expected it to be. With the Servant of Spells being holed up here, the Magus Killer had been expecting to deal with some ancient traps, familiars, and bounded fields but he saw none of that as he stealthily made his way to the building alongside Maiya. This only made his paranoia rise. Are they walking into a trap? Are Caster and his Master so confident in their skills that they didn't even put up the most basic of defenses?
The thought that Caster could be a mediocre Servant didn't even pass through Kiritsugu's mind. He is the prime suspect in the killing of Kariya Matou and the attacks on the Matou, Tohsaka, and McKenzie Residences. That Berserker is still uncounted for makes Kiritsugu believe that he is now under Caster's Master's control. Fighting them and Caster will most likely prove difficult for Saber, but she has Iri to run interference with Caster and Kiritsugu knows that his wife is more than capable of doing that.
Part of Kiritsugu still felt a rush of fear for Iri at the thought of her being hurt in battle. He ruthlessly pushed it down. His wife wouldn't survive the war and they both knew that. The least she could do until the end – in her own words – was provide Saber with magical support.
Another fact that kept his worry for his wife's safety down is that he believes Caster knows that she is the Lesser Grail's vessel. The Servant of Spells has shown to possess incredibly accurate information that he shouldn't know. Archer's identity couldn't have been easy to acquire so early into the war. Iri is sure that Caster must have some incredible capabilities in Divination and Kiritsugu agrees that is the most likely theory.
Taking another look at the wall that separates the temple from the forest surrounding it, Kiritsugu inspects the bounded field that he can see; the only bounded field he can see with Mage Sight. The beginner's spell easily shows him the red dome surrounding Ryuudou Temple and the green field surrounding the whole Mt. Enzou. His experience and knowledge of bounded fields allow him to easily denote the red dome as an Alarm Bounded Field and the green field is of course the anti-spirit bounded field naturally made by the nature of the mountain.
'Any beginner in Magecraft could easily identify that bounded field,' he thought to himself. 'And any adept Magus can easily bypass it. So why only put that one up? This isn't even a token effort.'
A thought came to the Magus Killer.
'It's as though… as though he is mocking me, anyone to come in and infiltrate his base. Are Caster and his Master that confident in whatever defenses they have inside the temple?'
"Is something the matter, sir?" he hears Maiya ask him from his right.
He keeps looking at the red dome as he replies, "I'm rethinking our approach. There is no way that an Alarm Bounded Field is the only defense Caster and his Master set up. No Magus would ever be so brazen as to not put up some defenses for their workshop."
"Maybe the bounded field is a bluff? Or maybe they have already changed bases?"
Kiritsugu shakes his head in the negative, "No Caster Servant would give up this place as a base without a fight. The cluster of lay lines that pass through Mt. Enzou is too good an advantage. That and the fact that this is one of the places where the Lesser Grail can manifest when the time is right. As for the bounded field being a bluff-"
Kiritsugu cuts himself off when he hears the subtle sound of a projectile flying through the air. Grabbing his assistant by the arm, he ducks and brings her down with him. Two flashes of silver fly over their heads and stab into the trees behind them.
Looking in the direction of where the projectiles were thrown from, Kiritsugu sees someone jump from the wall of the temple. Seeing them fall in their direction, Kiritsugu and Maiya dive and roll in opposite directions to avoid being stomped.
Quickly hiding behind a tree, he chances a look around the bark of the tree, SMG ready to fire on his right hand.
Kiritsugu watches as their attacker rises from the small crater they made upon landing. His trained night vision allows him to identify their attacker.
"Kotomine Kirei," he says the name as a curse. Kiritsugu had actually let out a sigh of relief when he learned of Assassin's death. He'd assumed that Kirei had perished with his Servant, but that is too good to be true it seems.
The Executor turns his head to look at him, but he is already pressing the trigger on his SMG as he aims at Kotomine. Maiya follows his lead a second later.
Even when flanked on both sides by machine-gun fire, Kotomine manages to dodge by performing the same move that he and Maiya had done just moments ago.
Kiritsugu and Maiya are forced to spin around their respective trees to keep aim on the Fake Priest. By the time they have him in their sights though, Kotomine has already drawn more Black Keys and thrown them at the two assassins.
Kiritsugu moves back behind his wooden shield and the three Black Keys that were thrown at him stab into the bark.
'This is not going to be an easy fight,' he thinks to himself.
10:33 PM, October 5th, 1994, Ryuudou Temple, Mt. Enzou, Fuyuki City, Japan
(Artoria's POV)
"Lan…celot…" she gasps in shock, unable to understand the sight before her. Her black knight, one of the most honorable knights of her Round Table, is standing before her as a Berserker.
She had known that it was possible she'd face familiar faces in this war, be it past allies or past foes. The chances were low, considering just how many Heroic Spirits reside at the Throne of Heroes. But there was a chance and Artoria had mentally prepared herself to face such a hurdle.
She had not prepared herself for what is standing in front of her though. Facing Lancelot as a Berserker? The thought had never crossed her mind! Lancelot was kind, gentle, noble, honorable and so much more. Him manifesting as the Servant of Madness made no sense whatsoever!
Another gasp escapes her as she looks down, lost in shock and memory.
Guinevere's execution and Lancelot's assault on the event.
It had broken her heart to see such an example of honor and chivalry be reduced to a mad dog, fighting his previous comrades as he tried to save the woman that held his heart.
"Lancelot," she looks ahead at the demoness Mephistopheles as she speaks. "Hunt."
Arondight in hand and eyes flashing a baleful orange despite his expression not changing from its emotionless visage, Lancelot obeys.
In the blink of an eye, her Black Knight is standing in front of her, his black sword swinging at her neck. Though caught off guard due to her shock, Artoria still manages to bring up Excalibur to block the Fairy Sword. Caught on the back foot like she was though, Artoria is not able to brace herself properly and thus is sent flying through the air to her left.
Crashing into the wall surrounding the temple, she lets out a gasp of pain. Her green eyes then widen and she rolls out of the way from another slash from Arondight. The Unfading Light of the Lake cuts cleanly through the concrete and rebar. She pays it little mind though, as the black blade is again being swung at her person.
This time, Artoria is ready and manages to block Lancelot's horizontal swing without being sent flying. The clash of their swords creates a shock wave that disperses the dust around them, but she and he ignore all of that. All of Artoria's focus is on her once-loyal knight as he proves why he was a very, very close second only to her in swordsmanship.
Excalibur and Arondight move through the air in blurs. More shock waves are created along with the sound of metal meeting metal as Excalibur and Arondight meet again and again. The two of them aren't stationary either, moving around the front yard of the temple, Artoria in favor of getting a better position to block and parry and Lancelot with the goal of skewering or cutting her.
Indeed, throughout their bout so far, she has not attacked her Black Knight once. It's not that she hasn't had the opportunity. She just…
It was all her fault. She hadn't been a good enough king. She had not been enough for Guinevere, which led to her affair with Lancelot. And she'd failed again upon the discovery of said affair. She'd failed to find another punishment for her friend and Queen. Instead, she'd let herself be led by the will of her subjects and the advice of her knights and ordered the execution of her Queen, which led to the betrayal of one of her most loyal knights.
She should have done better! She should have thought of another punishment!
But she did not. She failed. And because of her failure, her Black Knight was forevermore recalled as a mad dog instead of the great knight that he was in life.
It took all of her mental fortitude to not let the tears she so much wanted to let out, fall. This is wrong. This is all wrong! She shouldn't be fighting Lancelot the Mad Servant. She should be fighting Lancelot the Servant of the Sword! Why couldn't he have been the one summoned as Saber? She could have easily been summoned as Rider or Lancer!
She gasps. In her inner turmoil, she wasn't fast enough and missed a parry, allowing Arondight to cut through the flesh of her left thigh and her skirt. The pain brings clarity back to her and she barely manages to duck the swing Lancelot made for her neck.
Jumping back with only her right leg, Artoria points Excalibur at Lancelot's feet and releases Invisible Air.
The gale of super high pressure condensed air that leaves her sword strikes where Lancelot had been standing a second ago, he too having jumped back upon sensing danger. He is still it by the high-speed winds and sent back several feet, same as she.
She hits the ground on her back and quickly rolls up to her feet. She flinches at the stab of pain that comes from her thigh, but that quickly fades away as she feels Healing Magecraft being used on her.
Chancing a quick look above her left shoulder, she finds Irisviel by the archway at the gate of the temple. Her friend has her arms extended and her shining hands pointing at her. Two of Irisviel's wire familiars are perched on top of the archway, ready to protect the Homunculus.
Artoria doesn't see Mephistopheles in that direction and she doesn't have the time to look for her. With a bellow, Lancelot is back on her again with a diagonal slash.
"Enough…" she whispers to herself. With a deft move from her arms and wrists, she parries Arondight to her right. Another move has Excalibur ride up the black blade towards Lancelot's neck. He bends backwards to avoid her blade before righting himself. He then pulls his sword from the ground and swings at her midsection in one move. She's expecting that though and moonsaults over Arondight.
Using the force of his swing, Lancelot spins on his feet and brings Arondight around for a backwards swing at her neck. She ducks under the black sword given to him by the Lady of the Lake and takes a step forward to stab at his right thigh, his leading leg. Lancelot takes a step back though, avoiding Excalibur's tip, and brings Arondight down on her head with a downwards slice.
Going with the motion of her stab, Artoria rolls to her left and the black sword once again stabs into the ground.
Rolling back to her feet, she doesn't wait and attacks her Black Knight again in contrast to the beginning of their bout. Her eyes are filled with determination now, another difference from the Artoria of a minute ago.
'I failed you, Lancelot,' she thinks to herself as Excalibur and Arondight meet in a clash of metal again and again. 'I failed you once, but I won't do it again. I promise you. You and everyone I failed as a king: I'll win this war. I'll have my wish. I'll go back in time and use my second chance to do things right. I'll change everything for the better!'
Repeating that thought over and over in her mind like a chant, she parries another swing from Lancelot up, steps inside his guard, and bashes him with her right shoulder. Her Black Knight loses his footing for a second and she makes him pay for it with a cut across his chest, Excalibur cutting through his armor with only some slight resistance.
Ignoring the cut, Lancelot pays her back with a left hook to the cheek, sending her reeling back a few steps. She gets her baring quickly however and manages to sidestep his attempt at skewering her. Artoria goes for a slash across his midsection but Lancelot has already brought Arondight back and blocks with its guard. The Black Knight tries to disarm her with an expert move of his wrist but she takes a step back and fries Excalibur from the blade lock.
She quickly steps forward before he can make his next move and swings at his neck. He moves to block, but her move was a feint. Faster than the human eye can see, Excalibur is now moving to skewer the Black Knight's abdomen. Lancelot is no human though, he's a Heroic Spirit and, more importantly, one of the greatest swordsmen to ever live.
He easily sees through her feint and Arondight is there to parry the tip of Excalibur away. The black blade then comes back up in a rising swing at her torso. Artoria takes a step back to avoid the slash and, coming up with a plan through sheer instinct and skill, she moves to follow it.
As Arondight passes by her, Excalibur meets it from below. Increasing her physical capabilities to the limit with Mana Burst, Artoria – an aura of mana around her body – puts a considerable amount of her increased strength behind her rising swing.
Not expecting such strength from that swing, Lancelot loses his grip on his sword, and Arondight is sent flying from his hand. Then, with the Black Knight caught off guard, she takes a step forward and stabs Lancelot through his unguarded heart.
Silence fills the front yard of the Ryuudou Temple. The only thing Artoria can hear is Lancelot coughing blood as he leans on top of her. She simply stands there, Excalibur still pierced through his heart as he breathes raggedly, coughing blood every two breaths.
"I'm sorry… Lancelot," she apologizes through her ragged breath. "I failed… you and… the others. But… I'll make… things right… I promise."
As his body starts to fade, she hears him speak for the first time since they met again, "My king…It was I…who failed…you. You…gave up…so much…for our country…I…I wanted…punishment…for my actions…But…you forgave…me…You gave…away your…righteous anger…to be…the perfect…king…That…broke…me…I…I'm sorry…my king…"
Letting a single tear fall, she hugs her knight with her left arm.
"I…I-I h-hate you, L-Lancelot."
She can't see him, but she imagines that he has a smile on his bloodied lips as he turns into motes of light.
"Thank you, my king."
10:30 PM, October 5th, 1994, Ryuudou Cave, Mt. Enzou, Fuyuki City, Japan
(Desmond's POV)
As I walk through the cavern's halls, every step getting me closer to my goal, I can't help but ponder on the consequences of my next action.
'Desmond Blake' will seize to be. I will no longer be 'Desmond Blake', but someone else, something else.
The thought scares me, I'll admit. Even though I will be part of a greater whole, I'll still be different from what I am now. I'll gain incredible power of course, which is the main goal of my plan, but with that power will come great changes. My looks, my personality, my morals, my very way of thinking; all of it will change. For the better or worse, I do not know. Nonetheless, I need to see this through. I do not want to live in the Nasuverse. It's not a place where I can see myself enjoying my second chance.
No, I need to leave this place and to do that, I need the Grail's wish. And to get that, I need to separate Angra Mainyu from the Grail.
Finally arriving at the chamber where the Greater Grail is housed, I look at it. It looks exactly like the one shown in Fate/Apocrypha, a big ass sphere. There's not even a hint that it has been corrupted by All of the World's Evil.
Taking a deep breath and repeating in my head Yubel's encouragement, I summon two cards to my hand. Channeling a great amount of my mana to one of them, I cast the spell.
"De-Fusion! Separate Angra Mainyu from the Greater Grail!"
Green lightning shoots out from the Quick Spell Card and hits the Greater Grail. Once the humungous sphere is covered by it, black ooze starts to pour from it. The Mud of the Holy Grail starts falling in small chunks before as if the gates had been open, it all starts to pour out like a waterfall.
As the pinch black liquid trimming with curses closes on me, I feel a strange mix of peace and distress as the memory of my discussion of the plan with Yubel plays before my eyes.
Flashback
"Forgive my words, Master Desmond, but your plan is very risky," Yubel tells me from the other side of the table. I can clearly hear the worry in her voice. "Could you not simply use one of your other spells to destroy this Angra Mainyu?"
Giving her a smile filled with sadness and resignation, I shake my head. "No, that wouldn't work. As he is now, Angra Mainyu is simply too strong for one of my spells to work. I'd need to channel all of the Earth's Mana to overpower such a spell to the point that it would work. And, well, I do have the Black Hole, but I don't wish to test my capability of controlling a literal black hole when I don't even know if I'd be protected from the effect of that spell."
Frowning, the demoness throws another idea. "Then, why not fuse him with one of your subordinates? I'll gladly volunteer for such a job and I know the others would as well."
Again, I shake my head. "While a part of me agrees that your idea is better, a bigger part of me recognizes that I'd always be looking over my shoulder at the result of that fusion. In the back of my mind, there would always be a doubt about their loyalty. Angra Mainyu corrupts all who interact with him and I'd never be able to trust someone who is partly him. Besides…"
Looking at the dark sky outside through the window of the kitchen of the Ryuudou Temple, a memory from my past life comes to me.
"I know myself. I'm a control freak with trust issues. It has to be me who fuses with Angra Mainyu. I'd never trust him to anyone else."
Present
Mentally cursing my inability to trust others with too much power or control as the Mud of the Grail comes ever closer, I activate my second card.
This card is the most powerful Spell Card in my deck. It took me channeling the mana from the Ley Lines to it daily, and a dozen souls 'volunteered' by inmates from the closest prison, to give it enough power for what I'm about to do.
"I activate Super Polymerization! Fuse me and Angra Mainyu into one!"
A blinding light shines from the card and quickly engulfs the whole chamber, swallowing me and Angra Mainyu into it.
'So pretty,' is the only thing that comes to mind, before darkness becomes all I know.
Ok, this seems like a good place to stop. I thought of adding Kiritsugu and Maiya vs Kirei in this chapter but decided against it as it could take away the impact of Artoria vs Lancelot and Desmond's scene.
Speaking of that, what did you think of the battle? Or Desmond's scene? I'll admit, writing that fight took a lot of me. The beginning is always the hardest part, but then the fight sequence started to flow. Writing it from Artoria's perspective helped a lot and adding her thoughts on Lancelot and their past made writing that scene much easier. I hope you liked their fight and Artoria's inner turmoil throughout it. It's the best fight scene I've written in my opinion.
Desmond's scene was easier and harder to write. The words just flowed out for that scene, but I can't help but think that I could have done better. Maybe I should have added some scenes in previous chapters of Desmond's past life to show what kind of person he was/is and make his 'sacrifice' more meaningful. What do you guys think?
Oh, and Iri mistaking Desmond and Yubel for Faust and Mephistopheles came to me while I was writing that scene. As soon as I thought of it, I knew that I had to add it. I mean, it makes so much sense for her to come to that conclusion. Having Desmond take that misunderstanding into account also makes sense to me, since I've portrayed him as someone that works in the shadows and tricks his enemies.
Well, on another news, I've added a second tier to my Pat-reon. In this second tier, you will not only get to read a new chapter three days before those here on Fanfiction, but you'll also get to read the next chapter. By the time you're all reading this, Chapter 8 is getting comfortable in my Pat-reon as it waits for anyone who wishes to read it a month before it makes its debut here on Fanfiction.
With all of that being said. See you all next time on "A Most Improbable Caster".
Ja ne!
