Beyond the walls of his city, the horde of horrors stretches across the horizon.
The noise is as abominable as the sight : a chittering, maddening laugh that must be drowned by the booming of great gongs and the shouted prayers of hoarse priests. Around him, brave soldiers man the walls, holding terror at bay with thoughts of what the monsters will do to their loved ones if they run.
By his order, the ancient vaults have been opened, and the arsenal of their ancestors emptied to be used against the horde. The earth is cracked with their power, marred with wounds that will take thousands of years to heal. As many horrors have been slain as there are coins in his treasury, but the horde is endless, spawned by the dying spasms of the mad goddess.
His friend – his one true friend – gave their life to imprison her, to bring her low, but the horde continues to advance. It cannot be fought, cannot be defeated.
Yet it must be, if there is to be any future for Humanity on this world.
The sword that is not a sword is heavy in his grasp. Its power burns him, even in its inactive state. A normal man would already have perished, but he is no normal man. He is the son of a king and a goddess, clad in golden armor forged for him by They Who Hold The Pillars Of The World. He has fought monsters, known love and loss, and been denied immortality by those who know its true cost.
All that he is was made for this moment, this choice, that will set the course of the World itself.
This is the Hour of the Dividing. This is the Fall of Uruk.
This is where Gilgamesh earns his place as first of the Heroic Spirits.
The veil between realms must be strengthened, though it will come at great cost to those who draw upon the power of the Othersea. By his actions this day, he will cripple his kingdom, his people. He will deal a wound to the divine that will not heal, and which will in time usher in the end of the Age of the Gods.
He does not hesitate. How could he, when faced with such abject evil ?
He rises the sword – the weapon – Ea – and –
nO
ThIS iS nOT How WE WilL iT To HaVe HAppEneD
November 27h, 2004 AD – Emiya residence
The night had ended, but the sun did not shine upon Fuyuki.
As ruler of England, Lancer was used to overcast skies, but this was something else. During the night, dark clouds had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and completely blanketed the sky above Fuyuki. It was so bad that the street-lamps had stayed on, but even they couldn't quite overcome the unnatural darkness that had befallen the city. The weather forecast crew on the TV were completely flabbergasted, as there had been no warnings of anything like that on the satellite imagery and the other methods they used to predict the weather.
There were many theories circulating, each more outlandish than the last. One channel in particular had hosted someone who claimed this freak weather was the result of a secret weapon program being tested off the coast by the army, though even the journalist interviewing him had difficulties keeping her scepticism off her face.
The Masters had their own suspicions, of course.
"I bet the formation of those clouds started the exact moment I revealed Kor Phaeron's True Name," said Shirou.
"Probably," agreed Rin. "We all sensed that something happened when he stopped hiding behind Solomon's face, even if I still can't make any sense of just what it was."
That made sense to Lancer. Though the memories of her reign were fragmented, she knew that the World itself reacted to malevolent energies, much like a human body reacted to sickness, and she could think of few things more malevolent than Pretender.
Even now, several hours later, thinking of Kor Phaeron's face filled her with revulsion. That ... creature (she refused to call him a man) had been simply, hideously wrong. Evil, in a way that surpassed anything she had encountered before. Even Rider, who remembered the battles they had fought to protect Britain, had agreed with her on that when they had talked about it while their Masters slept. King Arthur had fought more powerful monsters, but none of them had been so steeped in malice as the false Caster. In most cases, Britain's monsters had simply been following their natures, or been driven mad by supernatural corruption.
But Kor Phaeron had chosen to be what he was, according to Shirou's 'history lesson'. It might be a matter of debate for philosophers, but as far as Lancer was concerned, that made him worse than even the infernal abominations he bound to his will.
"Still, this does have the advantage of helping keep the civilians out of the way," Sakura pointed out as they continued to listen in on the news report while eating breakfast. "Between this and the 'terrorist attack' at the docks, they are advising everyone to stay inside their homes except for emergencies."
"And with school cancelled, we'll be free to move without needing to justify our absence," continued Rin.
Shirou's guardian had called them earlier to inform them that the school teachers had been called to an emergency meeting in the morning – which was why Taiga hadn't joined them for breakfast. Between what had happened at the docks and the unnatural weather, it had been decided school would be closed down until further notice, with students told to stay in their homes and study the material on their own.
"Should we tell our allies what we learned ?" asked Illyasviel.
"Probably, but we can't tell them the full truth," decided Shirou. Lancer nodded; that much was obvious. The situation was already complicated enough : sharing their theories about alternate timelines with other members of the Moonlit World would only make things worse. "So we need to give them an explanation for the clouds. This isn't an outright breach of the secrecy of Magecraft, but that kind of large-scale effect is certainly enough to make the Association nervous."
"How about this ?" proposed Rin. "We confirm that Marisbury Animusphere summoned a Servant responsible for the destruction of the Animusphere Castle, and that he is also using their bodies to create familiars capable of fighting against Servants without being immediately destroyed. As to his True Name, we tell them he's an evil wizard from another timeline accessed by the Grail through the elements of the Kaleidoscope incorporated in its workings specializing in demonic summonings."
"Isn't that just telling them the truth ?" asked Rider, cocking her head to the side.
"Yes, except for a few key details," Rin told her Servant. "We won't be telling them anything about the relationship between Shirou's power and Kor Phaeron, the Imperium, Chaos, or the Heresy. I am ambivalent about telling the Clocktower and the Conglomerate about the Pretender Class, but it feels like something important enough we should probably mention it."
"Yes," agreed Shirou. "The existence of the Extra Classes isn't well-known outside of the Three Families, but if the worst comes to pass they'll need to know Kor Phaeron isn't an 'ordinary' Servant, so to speak."
"Are you going to call them right now ?" asked Saber.
Shirou checked the clock on the wall. "It's the middle of the night in Britain, but we should at least contact the Conglomerate this morning and call El-Melloi this afternoon. There isn't much he can do right now, and if we need his help we'll need him as rested as possible. Let's finish eating breakfast, then I'll call Kodai-san. Then we'll go over our strategy to deal with Kor Phaeron."
The rest of the meal passed in companionable silence, with everyone eating heartily from the meal Shirou and Sakura had prepared. They were cleaning up when the Bounded Fields around the home signalled someone had crossed them, swiftly followed by frantic banging on the door. Everyone paused what they were doing and turned toward the entrance as the banging continued.
"I'll get it," said Shirou. Saber rose to follow him, her fingers twitching visibly, ready to summon her sword into existence at a moment's notice.
The Servants moved to protect their Masters, just in case. The moment Shirou opened the door, his posture relaxed slightly.
"Issei ?" he asked, his voice full of concern. "What's wrong -"
From her position in the living room, Lancer saw it all happen as if in slow motion. The bespectacled teenager in sweat-drenched clothes standing in the door frame suddenly spasmed, his face contorting into a grimace of pain and anguish. His right hand came up, drawing a hooked dagger from his pocket and pushing it up toward Shirou's chest.
Of course, Shirou was far too quick for such an attack to hit, even taken by surprise. He smashed the weapon aside before moving behind his attacker, slamming the door shut, and pushing the intruder to the ground, holding him down in body lock that would have been difficult to escape even had Shirou not cast Reinforcement on his body the moment he had been out of sight from the outside.
The dagger slipped from the attacker's hand, hitting the floor point first and burying itself into the wood. The would-be assassin twitched feebly in Shirou's grasp, until the Master pressed his left hand against the base of his neck and cast a spell that immediately rendered him unconscious.
From the moment Shirou had opened the door, the entire process had taken less than three seconds. Saber hadn't even needed to call up her sword and armor.
"Rin," Shirou called out, speaking with remarkable calm for someone who had just been the target of a murder attempt by one of his acquaintances. "I could use your help, please. I think Issei has been put under a geas."
"R-right," replied Rin. "Let's move him somewhere else first."
They carried Issei – who, it turned out, was one of Shirou and Rin's classmates – into one of the rooms that, despite the increasing number of house guests, was still unoccupied. Once he was laid down, Rin started to examine him, while the others cleaned up breakfast and prepared to move out. A few moments later, the dark-haired Magus came back to the living room, looking troubled.
"Issei'll be fine, I think. There was definitely some sort of hypnosis on him, but it wasn't anything like what we use. It was at once more primitive and more vicious, if that makes any sense. I have done my best to purge him of foreign energies, and put a spell on him to keep him asleep. I also used a few healing spells : he'd torn the muscles in his legs to the point of risking permanent damage."
"He ran all the way from the Ryuudou Temple," explained Shirou, his face sombre. "Without regard for the damage it was doing to his body. Issei isn't out of shape, but he isn't the most athletic student either. The only reason he'd do this is if he was forced to ignore his body's pain and fatigue."
"Kor Phaeron," hissed Saber. For all of Lancer's intense dislike of Pretender, it paled compared to that of the other Servant.
Shirou nodded. "Yes. The hypnosis could be the work of someone else, but I recognized the dagger he used. It's a Colchisian athame, once used in the sacrificial pits of Vharadesh. The Dark Angels recovered it from the remnants of the Covenant after Lorgar won the war against them, and gave it to the Black Cardinal after summoning his spirit …"
The eyes of the young man glazed over for a few seconds, before he shook his head, banishing whatever vision of Corswain's past had been rising through his mind.
"Giving it to Issei was a deliberate challenge," he continued. "I should have seen it coming. Of course Pretender would go after the largest religious center in the city …"
"This is no time for self-recrimination," Rider cut in. "We need to act swiftly. People are in danger, if not already dead."
"You are right," agreed Shirou. "Kor Phaeron'll be waiting for us at the temple, or more of his Demon Pillars will. This time, they'll already have transformed, so we'll have a real fight on our hands -"
The phone rang, cutting him off. With a muttered curse, Shirou moved to answer it. As he saw the caller's ID, his body language somehow grew even more tense, and he quickly picked the phone up.
"Kamido-san ?"
"Kiddo !" The man's voice was frantic, with more than a hit of terror. "There's a monster attacking ! It's some kind of – fuck !"
The sound of things breaking apart, screams of pain and something that resembled laughter came out of the speaker for several seconds.
"Kamido ? Kamido !" shouted Shirou.
"We need your help, kiddo ! Get your ass here before -"
There was a final crashing sound, and the line went dead. For one moment, the red-haired teen simply stood there, before slamming the phone back down.
"Senpai ?" asked Sakura worriedly.
"We are going to split up," Shirou replied. "Illya and I are going to the Temple." He turned to look at Lancer's Master. "Kor Phaeron might target you because he thinks he can use you as the Lesser Grail, so I'm keeping you at my side until the bastard's soul is sent back to Hell. Also, Lancer's spear might be able to kill him for good."
"Archer, Assassin, you're coming with us," he continued. His voice was cold, his tone short and clipped; a commander's voice. As always, the difference between his usual warm and kind tone and the one he took when battle called was jarring. The two Divine Servants nodded in acceptance. "We might encounter more brainwashed people, and your skills will be useful in neutralizing them non-lethally. Sakura, Rin, please go help the Fujimura Group. Sella, Leysritt, keep watch on the house and make sure Issei is fine, please."
Lancer saw the discontent on Sella's face – this would make it four times now that her lady went into battle without her – but she swallowed her words, realizing that now wasn't the time to argue.
"We aren't switching Servants this time ?" asked Rin.
"No. I am not confident Kor Phaeron can't find a way to mess with the Command Seal's teleportation function, given time to prepare."
"Then you're aware this entire situation is a trap," said Rider. Lancer's other self wasn't objecting to his orders, Lancer knew, merely pointing out the obvious.
"Of course it's a trap," Shirou scoffed. "Kor Phaeron sent Issei to us and timed his Demon Pillar's attack on the Fujimura Group to happen right after he reached us. He wants us to split up, and is using the Fujimura Group as diversion because he knows they are our allies. But we can't leave them to die all the same. At least Taiga-nee isn't there, but … Please, Rin. They've been family for years. I need you to help them."
"Fine," said Rin, sighing. "Sakura, come with me. We are getting our gear and moving immediately."
Shirou looked at everyone in the room, and nodded. "Good luck, everyone. Remember, no matter how cunning Pretender's plan might seem, he has a long history of fucking things up and getting defeated. No matter what he's plotting this time, we will defeat him."
"Well," drawled Rider, "that's the fate of all monsters in the end. And Kor Phaeron is most definitely a monster."
Being carried by a Servant as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop may be quicker and stealthier than using motorbikes, but Rin still found it slightly humiliating. The fact she was being bride-carried by Rider, whom her hormones kept reminding her was very, very beautiful, also wasn't helping her concentration.
The streets were almost completely empty, and Rider and Berserker moved quickly, crossing the distance between the Emiya residence and the Fujimura estate faster than they'd have using bikes that were restricted to the ground. From the outside, the headquarters of the Fujimura Group looked perfectly normal, though the absence of the burly men in suits at the door was a sign something was wrong.
Of course, everyone in their group could sense the Magecraft surrounding the area. Rin even recognized its magical signature.
It's a standard Bounded Field, she explained over the mental link she had reactivated before their departure. Enforcers and Exorcists use them when they need to operate in areas with lot of witnesses.
'Standard' doesn't seem like Kor Phaeron's style, pointed out Sakura.
You're right. Be careful, everyone. Shirou ? We're about to go in. Our communications will go dark until we've brought the Bonded Field down.
Alright, came the reply, which carried a hint of Shirou's nervousness – only to be expected, given he was riding along Saber, and the Servants' driving wasn't for the faint of heart. Be careful, and don't hesitate to retreat if it gets too dangerous.
Rin knew how much saying this pained Shirou. But with so much at stake, they couldn't sacrifice their lives, even to save people whom he considered family. If Kor Phaeron succeeded in his plans, whatever they were ('bringing the Gods to the World' could mean many things, none of them good), then billions of lives would be in danger.
We know, Senpai, answered Sakura. Don't worry. We're strong.
The moment Rider's final jump carried them over the wall surrounding the estate, they passed through the Bounded Field's border and the truth was revealed to them just as Shirou's presence faded in Rin's mind, leaving only the slow thrumming of their contract.
What waited for them inside was a scene straight out of a warzone. The gate had been smashed in, and the broken corpses of several guards laid where they had fallen, bearing wounds that looked like they had been the result of industrial accidents. The front wall of the old Japanese-style mansion had also been broken through, and there were burning, hoof-shaped marks on the ground.
"It looks like there was only one attacker," noted Rider as they landed in the ravaged garden. "That fits what Kamido told Shirou over the phone."
"Pretender lost ten Demon Pillars last night, and all of them looked like the kind of high-ranking Magi the Animusphere would call to their castle," pointed out Rin. "Maybe he's running out of Magi corpses to use ?"
"That would be nice, but I doubt things will be that easy."
As they cautiously advanced across the devastation, an eerie silence hang over the estate, broken only by the sound of something heavy repeatedly smashing against metal coming from deeper into the broken building. The closer to it they got, the more the scent of blood was being overpowered by something else – something Rin couldn't identify, but which was unmistakably worse.
Take cover, Master, sent Rider. We will deal with that monstrosity.
With a nod, Rin and Sakura moved behind one of the walls still standing. They weren't like Shirou : in a direct confrontation between Servant-level beings, they would only get in the way. A Master's job was to support their Servant by giving them mana and fighting the enemy Masters if the opportunity presented itself.
There wouldn't be a chance to do that here, but that didn't mean Sakura and her wouldn't be able to contribute before this was over.
From their concealed position, Rin could see that the Demon Pillar was smashing its fist against a square metal door in the ground. Some kind of shelter or panic room, Rin guessed, where the survivors had taken refuge when it had become clear their weapons weren't having any effect on the attacker.
That the defenders had the presence of mind to get to relative safety when faced with something like the Demon Pillar spoke well of their willpower : she knew most people, when confronted with something straight out of the most vivid descriptions of Hell, would simply have frozen in place, unable to accept what they were seeing was real.
Not that she could have blamed them, given what the Demon Pillar looked like. The one they had fought at the docks had been disturbing enough, but this one was somehow worse.
It was huge, far taller than the one they had faced in the docks. Its crown of black horns left burn marks on the three-meters high ceiling as it moved. Its skin was the red of skinless muscle, liberally daubed with the blood of its victims, which even now dripped on the floor. Vicious thorns erupted from its flesh, and its right arm ended in monstrous claws with talons the length of her forearm while its left was shaped like a gigantic crab's claw from the elbow. Its feet were hooves, clearly the ones that had left the tracks they had followed to this place.
A plate of metal was embedded in its chest, bearing the mark of the ultima symbol surrounded by a black circle pierced by eight arrows pointing inward. She recognized that symbol from the descriptions of Shirou's visions : it was the emblem of the Thirteenth Legion, the Ultramarines, who had led the traitors against the Emperor in that other timeline.
And its face … its face was a nightmare all in itself. Its jaws resembled those of a canine, with obsidian-black, irregular teeth illuminated from within by the inferno that burned within its throat. Its eyes blazed with a light that was of no color Rin could name, but which promised the slow and painful extinction of all that was good in the universe.
Then it spoke :
"I can smell your presence, little ones."
The Demon Pillar's voice was clearer than that of the abomination Pretender had called Furfur had been. Rider had the disturbing impression that this wasn't a good thing at all – that there had been a very good reason why the words of the other Demon Pillar had been almost impossible to understand before. Was this another effect of Pretender's True Name being exposed by Shirou ?
Rider and Berserker walked together in the ruins of the room, having slipped around it to make sure the Demon Pillar's attention was turned the opposite way from where their Masters were hiding. She held Gungnir loosely in one hand, while Berserker carried her scythe, Harpe. They had no idea how well the weapons would perform against a creature such as this, but now was as good a chance to find out as any they were likely to get. Her Leader of the Wild Hunt Skill told her this was the only Demon Pillar in the area, which meant their guess that this attack was a diversion was most likely correct.
"So you have come," growled the Demon Pillar as the two Servants came into view. "Just as Kor Phaeron said you would. Mortals are ever so predictable."
"You don't like much like Furfur did," Rider called out. "Though you are just as ugly."
"Furfur was nothing," it boasted. "Just one more of the nameless hordes born of Mankind's nightmares, called forth to play his part as bait. I am different from him, from all the others Kor Phaeron has called forth."
Its eyes blazed with eldritch light as it stood up to its full height, towering over them.
"I was there when the Dark Master claimed his crown in the Eye of the Gods. I was there when the King of the Night's blood was spilled upon black sands. I was there when the Eternity Gate fell, and battled the last Guardians of the Throne in the Lord of Iron's maze."
Rider had only the faintest idea what it was talking about, but she could get the gist of it : in whatever passed for a hierarchy among Kor Phaeron's thralls, this creature stood higher than the one its master had used as bait last night.
"I am Raum," it declared, "first of the Daemonium Venatores."
"Oh, so you are one of those losers," said Rider.
Raum's gaze sharpened as her words drew its attention fully on her. It felt like a physical weight, a sickening shroud pressing on her that made her want to lash out and remove its source.
"What did you say, little huntress ?" Raum growled.
"You heard me," she answered brazenly. "Shirou told us about the Siege of Terra. He doesn't remember everything, but he knows your side lost so badly you had to run away all across the galaxy to find a place to hide." Rider smiled. "But don't worry. I'm sure things will be different this time. It's not as if your so-called gods got their champion killed before spending ten thousand years punching against the walls, heh ?" She made a show of gasping in shocked realization. "Oh wait."
She could feel Raum's anger at her words. Good. Truth be told, Rider was furious. She had been able to feel her Master's shock at the sight of another slaughter, so soon after what she had seen at the docks. And just like back there, the deaths that had occurred here had served no purpose but to draw them out. People had died so that their enemy could force them to move according to his designs, and that was unacceptable.
Despite his defeat, Kor Phaeron was still dictating the pace of the War. They needed to retake the initiative before the madman caused more deaths.
And maybe – just maybe – she was also looking forward to a chance to pay back the humiliating way in which she had been treated the last time she had fought a fully-transformed Demon Pillar. It had been a poor showing on her part, and she was eager to reclaim her tarnished honor.
Next to her, she felt Berserker's posture shift as the other Servant prepared for battle.
Be ready, she silently sent to her ally. We don't know what other abilities its brutish form conceals.
"You … I will strip the flesh from your bones," Raum promised. "I will flay you alive, and drag your soul from your bleeding carcass to feed it to the Gods. Then and only then, you will learn what true suffering is."
"Words," she sniffed derisively. "That's all your kind ever have when facing people who can actually fight back."
Raum roared, a sound that broke the few windows in the building that had survived so far, and charged. The ground under its cloven feet cracked under its weight as it accelerated faster than seemed possible for something so large.
Rider jumped left, Berserker right. She moved close to the ground, avoiding a swipe from the Demon Pillar's claw, and rolled back to her feet before striking at its leg with her spear. Gungnir's blade cut into the demon's kneecap, and a trickle of black ichor poured out of the wound. She felt her weapon's exaltation mixed with the seething hatred it felt for Raum's kind.
The Demon Pillar stumbled, its balance broken by the injury. Taking advantage of the opening, Berserker slashed at its flank with Harpe, cutting another gash into its infernal flesh from which more foul blood poured. Rider raised her spear, preparing to strike at a more vital target -
Then she had to dodge as Raum suddenly kicked her with the same leg she had injured. The wounded knee had already regenerated, and the cut Berserker had inflicted was also healing before their eyes. Both Gungnir and Harpe were weapons of legends, and while Berserker's scythe may not be the equal of Odin's legendary spear it was specialized in the killing of immortals, monsters, and immortal monsters. For Raum's healing abilities to overcome them both so quickly was very, very concerning.
"Did you think you could defeat me as easily as Furfur ?" mocked the Demon Pillar. "Your little tricks may be enough to make you strong on this little mud ball, but the universe is much bigger than you could imagine."
Its power is overriding the laws of the World around it, said Rin's voice in her head. Its bringing in the laws of its realm of origin. I'm surprised it can do that without backlash, though …
"The veil is lifting, little witch. Truth leaks in through the cracks in the lies of the World caused by Corswain's successor."
Fuck ! Rin's mental voice shouted in disbelief. It knows we are here !
"Don't worry, Master," replied Rider, twirling Gungnir in her hands. "We won't let it get anywhere near you."
"Oh, they have nothing to fear from me, little huntress. The Black Cardinal has other plans for them. His plans always were … imaginative."
"And they'll be thwarted just like all the rest of his evil schemes," promised Rider before the fight resumed.
It felt strange, to fight something so much more monstrous than she had ever been. To someone like her, who perceived the world around her through senses both mundane and supernatural, the Demon Pillar was an aberration that clashed hideously against its surroundings.
To her shame, Berserker found that a part of her enjoyed the novelty of unquestionably being on the side of righteousness. Unfortunately, as she knew all too well, being on the right side didn't guarantee victory.
Raum's attacks were swift as Aeolus' gales, and more devastating than any but the old god's most powerful winds. She could barely keep up dodging them thanks to Rider's assistance, which forced the Demon Pillar to split its attention between the two Servants. The two of them had B-ranked Agility, and even that was not enough for them to be able to land any significant counter-attacks. Every blow they managed to land healed almost immediately.
Through her occult senses, Berserker understood why : Raum's body wasn't real, not truly. For all its ghoulish appearance, it wasn't made of flesh and blood : it was a construct of energy laid around a physical core, what remained of the human body that had been used for its summoning. All the damage they inflicted on it could be repaired simply by pouring more power to replace the damage part, and Medusa doubted Pretender would be stingy with his power when his familiar was doing so well against them. Only a truly lethal blow would make any difference.
Raum was also strong enough that a single hit would break their limbs – or, in the case of its claw, rip them apart. Despite Rider's insult, it was clear that the Demon Pillar could have forced its way through the underground shelter's door at any time it chose. But instead it had held back, and while Berserker was sure there had been a tactical reason for it (without living hostages to rescue, they might have just obliterated the entire estate), she knew that hadn't been Raum's primary motivation. She could smell the fear of those trapped inside, and she knew the Demon Pillar could as well. It had been playing with its food, taunting them with the certainty of their deaths with deliberate cruelty.
The longer the fight went on like this, the greater the odds that Raum would manage a disabling blow, and things would only go worse from there. Yet they were not without options.
Through their bond, Sakura sensed where her thoughts were going. She called out to her, her mental voice worried :
Berserker, if you do this ...
I'll be fine, she reassured her Master with a confidence she didn't quite feel. As Shirou told me : this life is a chance to do better.
… Very well.
"Berserker," said Sakura, her voice loud and clear and resonating with power. "By the power of my Command Seal, I order you : WIN !"
On her Master's hand, the second of the three Command Seals flared and faded, and a flow of strength flooded Berserker as the order took hold. She had known what would happen then, for there was only one way to guarantee victory against a being such as Raum.
The Command Seal in her mind, the one that restrained her Madness Enhancement, faded. It didn't disappear, for it had been accompanied by all of Sakura's will, and her Master was far stronger than she appeared. But it did weaken, enough for her to once more know what had been hidden behind it.
She remembered.
Her claws, her fangs, tearing through flesh. The blood of mortals flowing down her throat. Their fear, their greed, their hunger for glory, fuelling her transformation from defender to predator.
All I ever wanted was to protect the ones I love.
She might never atone for her sins, but she wouldn't repeat them. She would master the Monster, and wield its strength without succumbing to its madness.
Medusa spoke through lengthening fangs, forcing the words out one by one :
"These are my hands, these are my sins,
This is my curse, my guilt, and no one else's,
GORGON BREAKER !"
Her blindfold vanished into golden dust, and for the first time she beheld the Demon Pillar with her vision, finding it as revolting as her other senses had indicated.
Berserker roared, and deployed her Noble Phantasm.
Rin had thought she knew what to expect from a Servant using their Noble Phantasm.
After all, she had studied her family's records of the previous Grail Wars, and seen Shirou cut through the Enforcer's Fragarach using what she now suspected had been an aspect of his latent Reality Marble. She'd thought they were trump cards, exceptionally powerful spells and abilities the likes of which had been lost to Humanity for ages.
Technically, she'd been correct. But as she watched Medusa unleash Gorgon Breaker, she realized how limited her understanding had been. Noble Phantasms were not spells : they were the crystallisation of a Heroic Spirit's legend. They were to Magecraft what a perfect rendition of Mozart's masterworks was to a child slamming their hands on a piano's keys. They were the embodiment of their myth, the manifestation of the mark they had left on Humanity's psyche and history.
And the legend of Medusa was known by hundreds of millions of souls in one form or another. After Shirou had claimed Archer and Assassin as his Servants, Rin had asked them what the truth really was (asking a Berserker about her tragic past would have been unbelievably stupid, after all). Like Medusa, their summoning had removed the details of most of their memories of the old gods, but their own past was too much a part of their identity for it to be hidden away like that.
Once she had parsed through the teasing, innuendo and boasts, she had been able to piece together something resembling the version of the legend which circulated in the Moonlit World. The Gorgon sisters had been exiled from Olympus because the gods were jealous of their beauty and immortality, and had taken refuge on the Shapeless Isle. There, they had dwelled in peace, but the youngest sister, Medusa, had been forced to fight against the humans who had come to capture her elder sisters. Eventually, she had become a monster and had devoured her own beloved sisters, succumbing wholly to madness until the hero Perseus had slain her.
Now, through her Noble Phantasm, Medusa was returning to the form she had worn when Perseus had come for her, years after she had completed her transformation from goddess to monster. Her legs fused into one great serpentine yellow trail, the same color as the scales that spread up her arms from her claws. Feathered wings erupted from her back, and her purple hair grew even longer, its extremities turning into snakes.
Through their link, Rin felt Sakura's prana reserves start dropping. The Command Seal had served to trigger the transformation, but maintaining it was another matter entirely. It was too much for her sister to sustain for long, but fortunately, it looked like she wouldn't have to.
Berserker's new form was as tall as Raum, and just as strong. She slammed into the Demon Pillar like a vengeful meteor, and the two of them crashed through a wall as they grappled with each other. Patches of grey, lifeless stone appeared on Raum's skin as Berserker's Petrification Gaze overwhelmed the Demon Pillar's infernal resistance, slowing its movements. Medusa's snake-hair bit deep into Raum's flesh, causing it to blacken under the effect of their poison before regenerating, only to start withering again. In return, Raum spat out a stream of hellfire that washed over Berserker's body, leaving burn marks as wide as Rin's hands.
A casual observer might have mistaken this for a fight between two monsters. But Rin could see the truth. For all her terrible majesty, Berserker was still a daughter of the World, while Raum was an incarnation of pure evil given shape by Gaia's nightmares.
It was a mesmerizing sight, one which commanded attention on a primal level. Therefore, Rin was completely unsurprised when Kirei took advantage of it to jump out of nowhere and try to punch Sakura's head off.
She moved, pouring prana into her limbs to quicken her body far beyond mortal limits, and her foot smashed into the fake priest's wrist. His own Reinforcement kept the bones from being pulverized by the impact, but the blow still threw his attack off-target. Kirei immediately leapt backward, barely dodging the six two-dimensional ribbons that erupted from Sakura's shadow.
As cleanly-cut pieces of the ceiling fell around them, Sakura turned around, and the two sisters faced the man who had killed their father.
"You knew I was here," said Kirei with a raised eyebrow. He didn't sound angry, or troubled. If anything, he sounded proud, and that made Rin far warier.
"It wasn't difficult," answered Rin, keeping her emotions off her face. "It's not like that monster could have cast a Bounded Field exactly like the ones Enforcers and Exorcists use to conceal their battles in the middle of urban areas."
"Ah. Yes, I suppose that would be enough of a clue for you. But that wasn't all, was it ?"
"No. We know Kiritsugu Emiya shot you in the heart from point-blank range just before the Grail was destroyed in the last War. And yet, I remember meeting you just after without you looking any worse for wear. It wasn't difficult to put those pieces together and see that you're under the influence of its corruption." Rin steeled herself, and continued : "We also know you're the one who killed my father, with the Azoth dagger he gave you and that you gave me, you sick bastard."
Kirei simply shrugged, the shadow of a nostalgic smile on his face. "We were in a War. He was the one who assumed I would be content to remain his pawn, despite knowing full well that the Grail only marked those with a wish of their own. Really, for someone so smart, Tokiomi could be remarkably stupid at times." He deliberately looked at Sakura, who met his gaze without wavering.
"I am not under any illusion that my father was a perfect, or even a good man," said Rin. "But I will avenge him all the same. And then … then I will be better than him. A better Magus, and a better person."
You already are, Nee-san, whispered Sakura's voice in her mind.
For several seconds, during which the cacophony of the battle continued unabated, Kirei simply looked at her. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Good. All children should seek to surpass their parents. It is the only way we can advance as a species."
"I am curious about one thing," said Sakura out loud. ". How can you see this," she gestured behind her, where Berserker and Rider were still engaged with Raum, "and keep fighting for it ? Are you that attached to your life that you would betray your entire species to continue living ?"
"Your understanding is limited," answered Kirei with an infuriatingly serene smile. "I don't do what I do for something as insignificant as my own life. I do it because it is right, because it is the work of the Gods. Is it not written in the Holy Book itself that when an angel met with a man for the first time, their first words were 'Be Not Afraid' ? Even that false faith understood that the divine will of course appear terrifying to lowly creatures such as us."
Rin was about to interject that Raum was not an angel when she remembered the name of Corswain's Legion, and what Shirou had told them about the Ninth Legion, the Blood Angels, whose depraved proclivities had sounded disturbingly familiar. Alright, perhaps Kirei had a point here with his particular choice of words. It didn't make Raum's origins any more palatable.
"You are insane," Sakura said softly. "I don't know how much of it is the result of the Grail twisting your mind and how much is you having always been an evil bastard, but we're going to stop you. You and Kor Phaeron both."
"Do you really think you can face me, who fought Kiritsugu Emiya and lived ?" mocked the fake priest.
"Given that Senpai's father killed you," cut in Sakura, "yes, I think we can."
Kirei looked at Rin's sister and shook his head in mock sadness.
"Ah, Sakura Matou. You could have been great, you know," said Kirei, his regret sounding almost sincere. "The Dark Gods would have welcomed you with open arms. In time, they might even have raised you up to rival the Ravenlord himself, so long as you proved more obedient than him."
"I'd rather be happy than powerful," riposted Sakura. Like Rin, she had no idea who that 'Ravenlord' Kirei had mentioned was, but that was almost certainly for the best. "And I know any happiness your slave masters would give me would be nothing more than a lie."
"Yet there is power in lies," mused Kirei, his face suddenly twisting into a cruel smile. "After all, it was a lie that convinced your mother that your uncle had killed your father, and that brought poor Kariya to such depths of despair that he strangled the woman he loved until her fragile mind finally broke."
What ?
Rin's train of thoughts stuttered and crashed. Her mind went blank -
RIN ! Rider shouted in her skull. Focus !
She blinked, and just like that, her focus was back. Meanwhile, Sakura didn't scream. She didn't rage at Kirei or curse him.
Instead, she started trying to kill him as quickly as possible. Her hair turned white, her eyes blazed red, and crimson and black lines ran on her skin and clothing. Black ribbons emerged from her shadow – and now the way they moved reminded Rin of Berserker's snake-hair – and rushed toward Kirei. The fake priest conjured a set of Black Keys in each hand, infusing the long, thin blades with magical energy so that they could cut the ribbons apart before they sliced him to pieces. But even with all his speed and training, he was forced to give ground and leap back in order to put enough distance between them that he had time to react.
A glancing blow tore his right sleeve off, revealing the Command Seals covering his lower arm. Rin couldn't get a precise count, but it looked like he had over a dozen.
Sometimes, Rin worried about her sister; and sometimes, she was proud of her. Right now, she wasn't sure, but she had more pressing concerns. Her plan to gain time by talking until Raum was dead and the Servants could come help had failed; now Sakura and her needed to survive a fight against one of the Church's strongest Exorcists with a bunch of Command Seals and whatever bullshit the Grail's corruption had added to his abilities.
She cast a trio of Gandr curses at Kirei with one hand while gathering power for an overpowered version of the withering curse in the other. Kirei danced around, dodging and parrying the two sisters' combined barrage. He tossed several Black Keys at them whenever an opportunity presented itself, but they managed to avoid them, the blades stabbing into the debris before dissipating.
The two sisters gave ground as Kirei managed to advance, maintaining the distance between them.
The ground shook as in the distance, Raum screamed in rage and pain.
Hold on just a moment longer, Rin ! Rider sent.
"No !" snarled Kirei, his gaze briefly flickering toward the direction of the other battle.
This was the opening Rin had been hoping for. She took out one of the many enchanted jewels on her person and threw it right at Kirei's feet. It detonated on impact, the ruby shattering as the spell contained within it activated to create a bright scarlet fireball that barely singed the fake priest's clothes, but did blind him for a moment. No matter how good you were at Reinforcement, it was incredibly difficult to use it on your eyeballs, as that idiot Shirou had found out years ago. Luckily, Rin had closed her eyes beforehand, though she still saw spots dancing in her vision.
Of course, such temporary blindness would hardly be handicap for someone as experienced as Kirei. His instincts were too good, his senses too sharp : he'd still be able to sense incoming spells, to say nothing of if Rin tried to get physical.
Instead, Rin pulled out the other thing she had taken when Sakura and her had geared up before leaving home : the Thompson Contender, Kiritsugu Emiya's own Mystic Code.
Without her Reinforcement, trying to fire that monster of a gun would have sprained her wrist at the very least. But with the help of Magecraft, her aim was steady. She didn't have a lot of experience with firearms – no, that was a lie. She didn't have any experience with them. Guns were a rarity in Japan, and given how Shirou had reacted to the one he had found under Kumamoto years ago, they hadn't considered adding them to their training.
Perhaps this gun wouldn't have the same effect on him given its history, but they hadn't risked it. When Shirou had dug it out at the start of the War, he hadn't even opened the box, only removed the Magecraft lock on it before handing it to Rin, and she too hadn't opened it until this morning, finding the weapon resting alongside the remaining Origin Bullets. They didn't have many of those, and given their origin they would be impossible to replace. Knowing what these things could do to a Magus, Rin couldn't say she was all too sorry about that.
The Origin Bullets were, to put it bluntly, abominations that flew in the face of everything the Association held sacred. Created from the ribs of Shirou's father, they used his dual Origin of Severing and Binding to turn the target's own Magical Circuits against them – and the more prana they were channelling through them at the time, the more devastating the effect. But they wouldn't just kill : if that were all, the Association wouldn't have any problems with their existence.
It was the fact that, even should the target survive, their Magical Circuits would be permanently crippled, including their Magic Crest, which would've led Kiritsugu Emiya to being declared a heretic and hunted down by the Enforcers if it weren't for the fact those in power made use of his services and didn't want to risk him going after them by pissing him off. To those obsessed with preserving their inherited knowledge and power, a weapon capable of destroying generations of work so casually was an utterly unforgivable thing, as the Archibalds had demonstrated when they had sent the Fraga Enforcer after Shirou on the filmiest of pretences.
Firing that gun in itself could be enough to permanently ruin Rin's chances to ever be accepted at the Clocktower if the knowledge fell into the wrong hands. At the moment, however, she found it difficult to care about that.
Despite Rin's lack of experience, at this range, and with her senses enhanced, it was almost impossible to miss. She breathed in, pulled the trigger, and the Origin Bullet slammed into Kirei's chest.
Kirei bent in two, eyes wide open. The Black Keys slipped from his fingers as he raised his hands to his chest, a disbelieving expression on his face.
Rin thought of her father, of her mother, of Sakura's uncle, of everyone else she loved and that the lunatic in front of her threatened with a fate worse than death.
She pulled another Origin Bullet out of her pocket, reloaded the gun, and fired again. And again. And again …
Eventually, her hand came out of her pocket empty, having spent all of the six Origin Bullets she had brought with her. Every shot had hit, yet somehow, Kirei was still standing. His flesh was pale as that of a corpse, and black veins pulsed under his skin as he tried and failed to speak, but he still stood.
Black blood poured from his wounds, pooling on the floor. There was a lot of it – too much, in fact. Rin's biology lessons told her the human body contained between five and six liters of blood, but there was a lot more than that coming out of Kirei right now.
She had a feeling the black liquid wasn't in fact blood. She wasn't going anywhere near it, but even from here she could feel the energy inside it, could smell its putrid scent.
One by one, the Command Seals on Kirei's arm flared and vanished, burned to sustain his life. Rin doubted he was doing it consciously; in fact, she doubted it was the fake priest using them up at all. Every time one of them was consumed, Kirei twitched and took in a guttural, tortured breath.
"He's still alive," muttered Sakura, sounding not at all affected by the horrible sight.
One more ribbon burst out of her shadow, aimed right at Kirei's neck. At the last moment, however, the dying man's body jerked out of the way, with none of the grace he had previously displayed : instead, it looked like a puppet whose strings had been violently pulled.
"What the ..."
Sakura's surprised exclamation was cut short when a giant black claw emerged from the pool of blood and caught Kirei's limp body, before plunging back down into the floor, taking the treacherous overseer with it. Within seconds, there was no trace of the tainted blood : it had vanished as if swallowed by an invisible drain, leaving only the bare floor behind.
"What the hell was that ?" asked Sakura breathlessly.
"Unless I miss my guess," said Rin with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, "that was the Grail taking its tool back."
It would have been too easy, after all, if Kirei had just died here, no matter how appropriate the circumstances. The fake priest had survived the entire Fourth War and Kiritsugu Emiya's own efforts to end his life : she had known he would take a lot of killing to stay down.
Well, at least she had hurt him. Whatever method the corrupted Grail was using to preserve the life of its pawn, Rin doubted it was pleasant one.
She heard a roar of triumph and another of rage that suddenly cut off, replaced by a gurgling noise that made her want to puke.
Oh, right. The other fight was still going on.
Rider ?
We are fine, Master. I just put Gungnir through that bastard's mouth and out the back of its skull while Berserker held it down. It's just … hold on a moment …
There was a sickeningly wet cracking sound, followed by the crackling of eldritch energies dissipating.
… there. It's dead. Are you two alright ? I don't sense your enemy's presence anymore.
We won, but he escaped. I'll explain later.
"Come on, Sakura," she called out to her sister. "We need to make sure the people in the shelter are fine."
There might be injured people who had made it in there, and they would all need memory alteration anyway. Truth be told, Rin had no idea how to sweep that sort of disaster under the rug. It had always been Kirei's work, and he obviously wasn't going to do it now. The Bounded Field was still keeping things hidden for now, but it wouldn't last forever ...
Perhaps Raiga Fujimura could help ? Shirou had told them that he wasn't sure just how much the Yakuza leader knew of the Moonlit World.
The two sisters met up with their Servants in the ruins of the room where the fight had started. Frankly, it was a miracle the ceiling hadn't collapsed given how little of the walls was still standing.
Rider's spear was covered in smoking ichor, its runes ablaze with power as they burned away the taint of Raum's blood. Her Servant appeared unhurt, apart from a few dents in her armor. Meanwhile, Berserker had dropped her Noble Phantasm and put her blindfold back on, but she hadn't completely returned to normal : there were still scales on her skin, and her hands and feet were still clawed. Rin hoped that was just temporary, and she would fully go back to normal after some time had passed to recover.
"So," she said, looking down at the battered door. "How do we open this ?"
Omake : Musings of an old tiger
I am getting too old for this, thought Raiga Fujimura, elder of the Fujimura family and Oyabun of the Fujimura Yakuza group.
He was careful not to let any of his fatigue show on his face in front of his subordinates, but even someone as stubborn as him couldn't deny that the passage of time was taking a toll. Once, he had been able to stay awake for days on end with enough tea and coffee, but nowadays if he tried it his doctor would kill him if the exhaustion didn't. He might need less sleep overall than in his youth, but what he needed was absolutely vital.
Fortunately, with age had come the ability to hoist off work onto the younger generations, so he could listen to Kamido's report of the situation instead of needing to go out and find out himself. The promising youngster he had taken under his wing a decade ago had done well, dealing with the crisis that had fallen in their laps as best he could.
"We have managed to get what happened at the docks under wraps," Kamido went on. "Our contacts in the police all agreed that it was for the best if any evidence pointing to something else than foreign gangsters or terrorists failed to show up on the records. Truth be told, it was almost too easy to get them to back off. Like someone else'd already primed them for it."
"I have no doubt that was the case," replied Raiga serenely.
Since the destruction of the Matou family, the Fujimura Group's influence over Fuyuki had grown even further. He hadn't realized how extensively the man responsible for Sakura-chan's abuse had penetrated Fuyuki's government until Zouken's web had started falling apart without him to maintain it. Taiga could respect the skill of the old monster, if absolutely nothing else : through a combination of blackmail, bribes, and blatant intidimidation, the head of the Matou family had been able to conceal his activities, which had included a frankly obcene number of murders over the years, from ever being discovered. That such a monster had operated in the city whose people he'd sworn to protect was a stain on Raiga's honor, and one he owed Shirou for expunging.
Even now, years after Zouken's death, the head of the Fujimura Group knew there were other players in town. He was certain it was those players that were responsible for the increase in violence in the city, and equally certain that it was in his best interests (and those of the city) to avoid disrupting their operations, much as it galled him to let them do as they pleased.
Perhaps Shirou will be able to help me with that once the current crisis is dealt with, he mused as Kamido finished listing off the men he had sent across the city to encourage their civilian contacts to stay safe. Something is clearly different from what happened ten years ago.
That much was made clear beyond doubt by the fact that dark clouds had blotted out the sun. Still, Raiga trusted that Shirou and his friends would find a way to prevent the worst from coming to pass. The creature responsible for the deaths at the docks had already been dealt with, and he didn't doubt that its accomplices would soon meet the same fate.
Raiga knew that, like his father before him, Shirou had supernatural abilities. The Oyabun had been aware of what Kiritsugu had called the Moonlit World for decades now, having encountered it in the wake of World War Two, when many monsters, not all of whom human, had taken advantage of the chaos.
No one else remained now who remembered those dark, frantic days. To the naive young man he had been, it had looked like everything had fallen apart impossibly quickly. He had done all he could to help the people organize and stay safe, and though many had sung his praises in the decades that followed, part of him would always feel like he hadn't done enough. He had seen too many people die, too much pain and suffering. It had taken years for the last of the horrors drawn out by the bloodshed and atrocities of the war to finally slink back to their lairs.
Sometimes, he wondered if this was how Shirou felt, despite having much less reason to blame himself than Raiga did -
The Oyabun's reminiscences were suddenly disturbed by a commotion outside the house. Shouts swiftly turned to screams, and the kind of wet, crunching noises Raiga had hoped never to hear again. Then there was a great crashing sound, followed by yet more screaming.
"What's happening ?" he asked out loud, though he dreaded that he already knew the answer. Kamido ran out to investigate, then rushed back into the room, pale and sweating bullets.
"Get the boss to the safe room !" shouted Kamido to the men who guarded the room. "Now ! Then pick up everyone else while we buy time !" His panicked gaze met Raiga's, and his eyes widened in realization. "I'm gonna call the kid !"
Before he could protest, Raiga found himself seized by two pairs of strong arms, and unceremoniously carried into the WWII-era bomb shelter that he had built his house on after the war. Other people followed : the cooks and cleaners, who had nothing to do with the Fujimura Group except for the name of their employer. Then, just before the door was slammed down, Kamido himself was thrown in, clutching his left side, which was bleeding badly.
The safe room had enough food and water to last them a week, and its own generator to keep the lights on. Raiga ordered one of the maids to get the medical supplies and help Kamido before he bled out. He'd have done it himself, but at his age, it was best not to use his hands for that sort of precise work.
He heard the muffled sounds of screaming for several moments before they stopped, and knew in his heart that all the people who hadn't made it to the shelter were dead. Then the ominous silence was broken by a repetitive banging against the reinforced metal door, and the civilians around Raiga whimpered in fear as they saw that the obstacle was beginning to buckle.
Raiga wasn't afraid of death. He had lived long enough not to be afraid of meeting his end. But he did find himself praying that help would arrive in time to save the others trapped with him from the monster on the other side of the door.
AN : Well, this chapter ended up taking a lot longer than I anticipated to write.
Good news, everyone : I have made another ill-advised pact with the dark forces that control the FGO gacha, and as a result I must now focus on ABR until the end of August lest I be struck down by their terrible retribution. Can anyone calculate what the odds of getting Castoria NP2 in only seven 10-pulls are, by the way ? I am not good enough with probabilities to do the math myself, but I know the odds can't be that high.
In this chapter, Raum isn't just a Demon Pillar : it is the same daemon as was introduced in The First Heretic of the Horus Heresy series, though of course the details of its involvement in the rebellion were different in the Roboutian Heresy timeline. You can find more details about the events it mentions in the Index Astartes of the Ultramarines in the Roboutian Heresy story.
At first, I had planned for the heroes to face a group of Demon Pillars at the Fujimura estate, but then I realized that there existed a "Raum" in both the HH and FGO, and I just had to use it. It seemed a much better way to explore the consequences of Pretender's True Name being exposed by Shirou while introducing more 40K elements in this crossover.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am not quite satisfied with how the fighting scene ended up; I'll try to do better in the next chapter. As usual, please tell me what you thought of it, and what you're hoping to see in the future.
Zahariel out.
EDIT (31/07/2022) : after several reviewers pointed out that the Thompson Contender is a single-shot gun which needs to be reloaded after each shot, I have edited the chapter to reflect this. I don't know how I missed this, since I specifically rewatched the episode of Fate:Zero with the duel between Kirei and Kiritsugu for this chapter. Thanks to everyone who pointed this out.