Disclaimer: The works of Type-Moon and Jō Taketsuki are their own despite my most fervent wishes. This is a fan work and if anyone does pay me for it the only thing it will accomplish is to get me into trouble. This is being done purely for fun, constructive criticism is welcome, and flames will be ignored. Please be gentle though, this is the first fanfic I've put on the net.
Here's another chapter. Let me say thanks to all of you who dropped me a review, almost a hundred again, AWESOME! I'm glad to see that for the most part puppet Berserker and Illya's Noble Phantasm were well received. Also her acquisition of minions seems to have been the favoured development of the last chapter so I gave them a bit more exposure in this chapter. Also thanks to MDZcoolguy for an excellent idea.
A question that I've received a lot is to ask if this Mordred is the Nasuverse one and if not, then how is he related to King Arthur and so on. To make things easier for readers unfamiliar with some of the more obscure lore of Campione!, which hasn't even been entered into the wiki, I'm writing a short story to serve as explanation here.
At the beginning of the sixth century Europe was being plagued by an unusually high number of corrupt Campione. Unlike the modern ones these had absolutely no sense of restraint and pretty much set themselves up as tyrant god kings. One of them led a never-ending tide of conquest with the equestrian tribes under his command. Another was a berserker endlessly seeking fresh bloodshed for himself and his followers. Another was a depraved follower of the mystic arts that hoped to take over all of the magi circles within the Roman Empire. Another was a mindless hero who cared not for anyone or anything other than wandering around displaying brainless valour. And the last was a former Roman general who loved fighting and hunting, so much so that he always refrained from finishing his foes so they would raise new armies to fight him, so much so that he devoted hours to hunting his favourite prey, man.
As a result, ancient Britain was an apocalyptic world. The end of an era.
While the common people were ravaged by incessant hardship, He appeared.
He challenged the seemingly invincible King and triumphed, thus bringing salvation to the troubled land and earning the love and worship of all its peoples. He was the King Who Appears at the End of Eras, the Strongest Steel, the King of the End and many other titles, but to those who followed and worshiped him he was Artus.
When they learnt that one of their fellows had fallen the other Campione turned their attention to Britain in the hopes of either finding a worthy foe or of simply gaining greater power. This resulted in a series of death matches that drew the attention of many. Several gods came to follow the god that could defeat and slay so many god slayers. They became the origin of the Knights of the Round Table. Sir Kay, Sir Gawain, Sir Bedivere and others, all of them were deities. The river god Kai, the battle god Gwalchmai, and the one-armed war god Bedwyr.
Later the exhausted Artus fell into a state of hibernation where he drew strength from the earth and waited for the time he would be needed again. However for unknown reasons one of his followers, the white Mother Goddess who would become a Divine Ancestor, began to make attempts to revive him early.
She sacrificed herself to create the powerful magical artefact called the Holy Grail, and then left things to her reincarnation, the witch queen Guinevere.
It was this reincarnation that manipulated playwrights and scholars to bring about the basis of Arthurian legend. Her plan was to use the belief such stories would generate as part of a ritual to revive Artus. Unfortunately for her she ended up being murdered by a Campione of the time. By the time she reincarnated the legends that she'd created had taken on such momentum that they'd actually created a new god, Arthur. As a result that method was no longer available to her, and Artus could be regarded as the prototype of Arthur, though his (or maybe even her) true identity remains unknown.
Since then Guinevere has been seeking other ways to revive the King of the End while being aided by her protector Lancelot du Lac.
The Mordred of this story is an original character that may become against Campione! canon as time goes by; I won't reveal his history just yet, that'll come in a chapter or two.
Hope that helps answer any questions people might have.
Incidentally I've also included a rough Servant Stats style evaluation of Godou's abilities and Authorities at the bottom of this chapter. As with Shirou's it's just a rough work that I think is mainly accurate, however if anyone has any comments on how it might be changed to be more accurate please let me know. I can't promise I'll make the changes, but I will pay attention to any constructive criticism.
SPOILERS.
Well we've finally arrived at one of my favourite story arcs of the Campione! series. As you can probably tell from the title this is going to be spread out over several chapters, probably three or four.
I had a bit of trouble deciding how to go about integrating a fourth Campione into the story, what I've decided on means that Shirou won't be seeing too much action in the next chapter, but does set the pace for what I intend to be my best fight scene to day later on.
I plan to keep somewhat to the canon of Campione!, but the inclusion of new factors will lead to some interesting changes and viewpoints.
Well I hope everyone enjoys this latest chapter. Also a big thank you to my Beta without whose help there would be a great deal more errors in my writing.
[-]
God Slaying Blade Works: Chapter Nine: The Four Kings Part 1
Athena was currently engaging in her favourite pastime in this country, namely stalking her chosen prey Kusanagi Godou.
Right now the boy was in a car along with his collection of female companions. Interestingly there was also a young girl with them, the sister of priestess she believed.
Normally the powerful goddess wouldn't have even bothered to take note of the King's followers, they were mortal and therefore of no consequence. However she was, among other aspects, a goddess of the art of war, and only a true fool didn't learn from the past. In their last battle Kusanagi Godou's allies had provided him with the edge he had needed in order to win, she would not make the mistake of dismissing them again.
Athena was currently hovering above them, hidden behind a cloud, and using her divine senses to observe her future foe. With a sigh and a tiny smile she abandoned her pursuit and settled down in a small clearing not too far from the road. She couldn't afford to spend too much time observing her prey, especially not in circumstances that necessitated the use of her powers. There was too much of a chance that he or one of his companions might sense her.
Recently though she hadn't been able to devote as much time as she would have preferred to this activity. Her agreement with her allies meant that she had to lend them her power as a true deity for parts of their plan. For the most part that had mainly consisted of her charging certain artefacts and symbols with her power so they would count as divine instruments. That wasn't a particularly difficult task, but it was annoyingly time consuming and somewhat tiring.
As soon as her obligations had been fulfilled and her stamina restored she had taken the chance to check upon her target's progress.
Having last seen him just after his victory over the unknown subordinate god she hadn't had the chance to pay close attention to him since then. Having conducted a better inspection of her future opponent she had found herself pleasantly surprised by what she discovered. It seemed that not only had he finally learnt how to grasp all ten Authorities that he had usurped from Verethragna but he had also gained a new one from the deity she had witnessed him defeat. She had allowed her Authority of Wisdom to tap into the Memories of the Void, a most useful Authority to possess, and soon identified it.
Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi, a fine subordinate god of Steel, and a decent match for her young quarry. Idly she wondered if he would learn to swing the blade properly or whether he would instead focus upon mastering its power, either course had its merits and failings.
Either way it was good that he had found further conflict: it would help him to sharpen his fangs for when it was time for the two of them to have their own fated battle.
"And hast thy curiosities been sated by thy observations honoured Athena?"
It took a great deal of the goddess's self control not to jump in a most undignified manner when the unexpected voice came from behind her.
Spinning around she drew on her powers, readying herself in case she would be called to combat.
Behind her stood a towering figure clad entirely in heavy plated armour and carrying weapons on both hips and a great shield upon his back. He was without any doubt a god, but to her surprise even though the armoured giant radiated power and menace she had not sensed him until she had laid eyes on him. How was that possible? How could she have missed such blatant power?
"Honoured Mother, I would like to present our latest ally, Sir Mordred."
The voice came from beside the steel clad titan and the Snake goddess looked down to see her golden haired ally standing next to the god's left leg. It was an almost farcical sight, given that the seemingly young girl only came up to just above the knight's knee, like a tiny child standing next to her father.
"He is our ally?"
"Indeed," there was a definite note of triumph to the Divine Ancestor's voice, "In return for the service of rousing him from his sleep and letting him know of the new God Slayers that walk the world Sir Mordred has pledged to serve me as my protector and champion until I have regained my lost power."
Now that was cause for concern. The majority of her security in their alliance had stemmed from the fact that if they somehow betrayed or deceived her, despite their oaths, then it was well within her power to dispose of both of them. However now this new arrival brought that truth into question.
Even without using her Authorities to learn more about him she could tell that he was a powerful god, it practically radiated from him. With a slight frown on her face she reached out with her Wisdom, she would not be intimidated by this hulking warrior. Revealing his true identity would be a small show of strength, a demonstration that she was not to be taken lightly.
But when she reached out into the Memories of the Void she found . . . nothing, no hints to his identity, no accessible knowledge of his origins. There was quite simply nothing.
Something must have shown on her face, despite her attempts to keep her expression blank, because a deep throated chuckle came from the towering knight.
"Thou canst not discern mine identity so easily honoured Athena," he said, "I am the Black Knight of legend, the first and the greatest, mine true self is secret and mine designs and actions hidden, such is the burden and privilege of those who bear the black armour."
So that was it, he actually had an Authority that worked to not only protect his true identity but also served to conceal his movements and actions save for when he chose to move openly. Small wonder that she hadn't noticed him enter her presence until such time as he chose to alert her to his existence.
This was worrying. With such an Authority this Mordred was the natural enemy of Kusanagi Godou as it provided a perfect counter to his trump card, the golden sword of spell words that could slice a target's divinity.
Under normal circumstances the seventh Campione relied upon his female attendants to supply him with the knowledge of his target's history and nature so that he could create the sword needed to slash their Authorities and seal their powers. However against this deity such would be impossible, his priestess might be talented, but if Athena's Wisdom could not discern the true identity of the hulking black knight then her weaker abilities would have no hope of success.
Having been denied his principle advantage the black haired Campione would be forced to fall back on his other Authorities, and though they were powerful he was perhaps less practiced in their use.
Simply put she was slightly concerned that if this Sir Mordred was set as an opponent for her prey then there might be the chance that her prey would be poached by another.
On the other hand this might be an excellent chance to further force her target to improve himself. Denied his arguably most potent weapon might he not instead be forced to further improve himself in the use of his other Authorities? That was something worth considering.
For the time being it was unlikely that Kusanagi Godou would come into conflict with her allies, their focus was upon the other Japanese Campione. As long as this remained the case then there would no conflict of interests for her.
-()-
There are times in your life when you realize that you could have gone through your entire existence without realizing that there is something that you not only enjoy but are in fact very good at.
Renjou Kaida had been raised as a Hime-Miko for as long as she could remember; she had trained in the use of her natural powers and had been taught the various spells that she had shown an aptitude for. Her education had involved learning the history of the various deities and spirits that had appeared in her country over the last few hundred years as well as the history of the Committee and the various smaller organizations that it had absorbed into itself over the years.
She had dutifully taken to all these tasks and had been accordingly praised by her teacher for her excellent diligence and fine attitude. She'd always been aware that her powers and privileges came with responsibilities, so she'd always worked hard to meet what she felt was her duty.
She had also always taken a certain pleasure in the correct execution of her duties. Every time she had consecrated some ground, purified a victim of some curse or correctly honoured some spirit she had been content in the knowledge that she had done her tasks well.
When she had volunteered to take the position of a maid at the mansion of Emiya-sama it had been a spur of the moment action, something done without properly thinking it through. When her training had begun she'd expected to have to tackle it with the same grinding determination that she'd applied to her lessons in magic and ritual. However she'd discovered something that had surprised her considerably.
She liked being a maid.
Not only did she like it, it turned out that she also had some considerable talent for the profession. She'd always been fastidious about keeping her shrine tidy, but it seemed that those habits translated well into her new tasks.
And she had been kept busy these last couple of weeks. When she had first begun her work here there had only been six inhabitants of the manor, including herself and Manaka. Despite the large size of the mansion she'd soon estimated that it would be relatively easy to do her new duties with so few people living there.
Then Illya-sama had been kidnapped and had then proceeded to turn her captors into her minions.
Once she had returned with her new underlings thing had certainly become more interesting in the mansion. It had been on the first night that they'd arrived that she'd seen just how scary Emiya-sama could be. The Campione had assembled all the members of the Circle in one of the larger empty rooms of the mansion, locked the door and spent the next twenty minutes explaining his views on what they had done. Kaida hadn't been able to find out exactly what he'd said to them, but when they'd come stumbling out of that room afterwards she'd been there to see it and had noted every one of them had been chalk white and trembling slightly.
Also she had later noted that all of them seemed to have developed a minor phobia of blades, even when sitting down to a meal they seemed to watch their knives with suspicion, as though expecting them to attack as soon as they weren't paying attention.
Things had certainly become busier since then; nearly half of Illya-sama's minions had moved into the mansion and become the direct subordinates of Yusuke-san. When the black haired Hime-Miko had asked as to the details of what was going on the resurrected accountant had been more than happy to fill her in.
It seemed that the Circle of the Chosen owned a small empire of properties and businesses, but that empire had been very poorly managed and was on the verge of collapse. At Illya-sama's orders total control of it had been turned over to Yusuke-san and Shirou has granted his chief servant full access to any financial backing he might need. When the re-embodied soul had talked to the former shrine maiden it was after a fifty six hour working marathon. Granted Emiya-sama's undead servants didn't require nearly as much sleep as normal humans, but even so being focused on a single task for so long had been exhausting. However regardless of his tiredness Yusuke-san had said it was some of the most fun he'd had in ages.
Kaida had expressed her surprise at that statement; the accountant had said that it was all a matter of preference. For some who had that inclination painting a masterpiece was a joy, for others taking a seemingly useless lump of wood and carving it into something useful was their pleasure. He, on the other hand, was a man whose aptitude was for numbers. So for him the task of taking the mess that was the Circle's financial state and fixing it into something that would not only support itself but also yield a profit, that was his pleasure.
Things in the Emiya mansion were still mostly informal. For the most part the new arrivals kept to themselves. They were well aware that they were not held in any sort of favour by the master of the manor, in fact he was only tolerating them as a favour to his adopted sister. That was probably why they were working so hard; they knew that right now that their only chance to avoid dismissal was to prove themselves useful. At the moment they were a novelty to Illya-sama, her own personal minions as she described them, but young girls were prone to losing interest in old novelties fairly quickly. If they wanted to secure their position they had to do it soon.
In all truth the young Renjou could understand their urgency. From what she could understand access to Emiya-sama's wealth was the only chance they had to avoid bankruptcy. In addition to that was the simple fact that they were, to all intents and purposes, slaves to the siblings. At least if they were able to stay here then they would have some sort of influence on their masters, if not then they would have to answer to distant controllers that they knew nothing of.
Also there was the simple matter that practically any organization worth its salt would be willing to pay in blood if it allowed them to have agents in this manor.
This was the home of a Campione, not only that it was the home of a Campione that seemed to be taking a fairly unique approach in the use of his position's power. The closest thing that she could think of was how the Black Prince Alec had built up the organization Royal Arsenal. However that Campione had only assembled his faction in order to provide him with some support, but mainly simply so that they would oppose the elite magical associations led by the Witenagemot.
Emiya-sama seemed to be putting something completely different together. His organization seemed to be about acquiring power and influence as quickly as possible in order to aid the eighth Campione in finding something. Exactly what that something was Kaida had no idea, but she was willing to bet that in less than a month a good many people around the world would be willing to cut off their own arms in order to find out.
All that meant that this mansion was soon going to be the place where some very important things would take place. For example during Illya-sama's kidnapping Kusanagi-sama and his harem had come round to offer their support and aid. That alone was a momentous occurrence, two Campione in the same dwelling and no conflict between them. Suzuki-san had taken the task of serving at that meeting upon herself, so both Kaida and Manaka hadn't been aware of what had happened until after the seventh Campione and his lover had left. It still seemed surreal to her, two of the most powerful mortals in the world had been conversing not more than a hundred metres from where she had been. And what had she been doing at the time? She'd been happily polishing some old silver western cutlery. It was so unbelievable it was almost funny.
Still being a maid hadn't been the only thing that had been taking up her time. A couple of days after the failed kidnapping and the forceful recruitment of Illya-sama's new servants the adopted siblings had begun to look through the information that the Committee had sent them in earnest.
So far they had only made a few minor questions to her and Manaka, minor queries such as asking for clarification on the details of a document that they were researching. In time they would expand their knowledge and their questions would likewise grow in depth. Soon they would be in further need of what she and her friend could teach them, and then they would be able to demonstrate their full value to the Campione and his adopted sister.
"Ah, Renjou-san, could I have a moment of your time please?"
The Hime-Miko turned maid looked up from the table she'd been polishing and saw that she was being addressed by one of the former members of the Circle of the Chosen. This one was one of the few women among them, a young lady in her early twenties with brown hair and matching brown eyes. She was quite pretty, but it was the sort of good looks that failed to be really striking.
Her stance and bearing were both nervous and subservient, Kaida could understand that. One thing that she'd learnt about the talk that Emiya-sama had given to them was that he had been very clear about their position in the manor's hierarchy. He was largely tolerating their presence as a favour to his adopted sister. In his words they 'ranked above the worms in the earth and any cockroaches that might have found their way into the mansion, but until they proved themselves to be useful they still ranked below the bottles of wine in Yusuke's collection'.
She could imagine that being told that one's position in the chain of command was inferior to an inanimate object wasn't too good for ones ego. On the other hand it seemed to have lent the manor's new occupants considerable motivation to prove their worth to their new masters.
This one was . . .
"Delfavero-san, what can I do for you?" Yes that was her name, Ersilia Delfavero. She had been one of the more subdued members of the former cult when she'd first been ordered to remain in the mansion under Yusuke-san's command rather than return to her home country. However she'd shown an admirable drive to improve her situation, which had made her stand out in the former shrine maiden's mind. If her memory served her correctly Delfavero-san was now acting as one of the resurrected accountant's personal assistants.
"Illya-sama asked me to tell you to come to her workshop, there's something going on that she needs to speak to you about."
On hearing that Kaida gave a quick nod of thanks and shot off.
Her behaviour was rather unusual for her; normally the black haired Hime-Miko was an extremely polite person and would have given a more courteous farewell. However she had been given the opportunity to go inside the white haired mage's Workshop, and that was something she dearly wanted to experience once more.
The only other time that she'd been inside had been shortly after the kidnapping incident. Back then she'd been bringing Illya-sama some refreshments after she'd spent more than four hours in the small building. It had been a hot day and Suzuki-san had thought a pitcher of iced water and some sandwiches should be delivered. Kaida had arrived and knocked on the door and waited. She was aware of how secretive both the adopted siblings were of what took place in their Workshops, one of the first rules that they always laid down with new staff was that nobody went into those sheds without their expressed permission. As such the black haired young woman had expected to simply hand the tray to the young mistress without even seeing inside the Workshop.
Instead she'd heard Illya-sama shouting out a reply for her to come in.
When Kaida had stepped into the Workshop she had forgotten to breathe for an instant, so great was her amazement at what she saw. The single room of the shed was divided into two portions; one half was mainly taken up by a large open area around some sort of circle that had been carved into the floor. She hadn't recognized many of the markings and designs used, but she could tell that the style was definitely of European origin. The circle also sparkled metallically leading the Hime-Miko to think that it was made of silver, however a closer look showed her that the colour was slightly off for it to be so. It had taken her a couple of seconds to realize that every line, symbol and curve of the circle had been picked out in perfectly shaped platinum.
Still, despite how fascinating that had been the other half of the shed had been even more eye-catching. The tiny golden city wrought in exquisite detail and rippling in constant motion as it seemed to update itself from one instant to the next. Tiny cars the size of ants moved between trees like toothpicks and buildings the sizes of cigarette stubs. She'd immediately recognized what it was; a tiny recreation of Tokyo city.
She'd only had time to look at it briefly though; Illya-sama had called to her from where she'd been bent over a work bench and asked her to hold onto the end of a curled wire. With someone else holding the wire the white haired girl had been able to carefully weld another wire into its side. As soon as she was done Illya-sama had thanked her and quickly shooed her out of the Workshop.
Kaida freely admitted that she was probably not the most knowledgeable person in the world when it came to the various schools of magic in the world. However she was generally well educated and knew at least the generalities. However the strange unknown form of magic that both Emiya-sama and Illya-sama practiced was a source of endless fascination to her. Certainly someone of great skill might have been able to assemble something like the miniature city, but the black haired maid knew that it had been done without any invocations of gods or angels. The thought that it was possible for humans to do such without the aid of higher powers amazed her.
Well, now she was getting a chance to go in there again, she wondered why that was and what she might learn.
-()-
Shirou brought his left sword up to block the weapon swinging at him. The weapon he held in that hand was a polish Karabela, a kind of European scimitar, and in his grip it redirected the blade of his foe to the side and away. The curve of the blade allowed him to further direct the weapon, catching it in a sort of forced path. As his foe lost control of his sword the young Emiya brought his other sword around. This one was a falchion, a short but heavy sword favoured by knights around the time of the Crusades. His blow brushed aside the short sword that had been raised in a hasty defence . . . and stopped just as it touched the skin of his opponent's neck.
"That's my win Ian-sensei."
The eighth Campione stepped back and bowed to the knight that was standing across the dojo from him. In response the armoured warrior sheathed his weapons and bowed in return.
"It was my pleasure to spar with you my King, please call upon me at any time should you have need of my services or swords."
As he finished talking the knight seemed to dissolve into dust in the wind which itself soon faded from existence.
Shirou breathed out in a long sigh and allowed himself to collapse into a rather unsightly sitting sprawl as his blades faded from existence. That had been a good workout. Ian-sensei might lack the grace and consummate skill of a samurai, but he more than made up for it with his experience and his cunning. The Knight was from Britain during the eighth century, he had been a knight who had fought in many battles and survived many wars. One of the acquisitions that Shirou had made with his internet purchases had been the hilt of one of his favourite swords.
Since his first summoning the knight had been more than happy to answer his new King's call whenever it was made.
Ian had been the last of three sparring matches that the young Emiya had put himself through in order to test the modifications that he'd made to the style that he'd assimilated from EMIYA.
That style was something that his counterpart had painstakingly created over many years of his life while engaging in endless battles and facing countless opponents. It was a style ideal for the one known as Emiya Shirou because it had been made by the very one that could in many ways be regarded as Emiya Shirou's ideal.
However that was no longer completely true of this Emiya Shirou. This one had cast aside the ideals that had formed the core of his otherworldly counterparts, but it went beyond that to something far simpler. This Shirou was physically different from EMIYA; who had built his style up in a certain way because he could only move so fast, because he could only be so strong. The end result had been a style that limited the opponent's choices to avenues that EMIYA had been able to predict and prepare for, an insane style that allowed the future Archer to fight those many times his strength and skill.
However while that style was still of immense value to the eighth Campione it was no longer as perfectly suited for him as it had once been. With his improved body and Authorities he now possessed completely different performance parameters than the Counter Guardian had. In terms of pure physical power, prana capacity and physical quality Shirou could definitely say he was superior to the Servant of the bow. Of course he was also aware that in many ways Archer was still far more advanced than him despite the skills he had assimilated from his arm.
Archer had been far more skilled in the construction and modification of Noble Phantasms, he had been able to break them perfectly to get the maximum performance out of them as Broken Phantasms, and of course he had fully realized his Reality Marble. Shirou might have the memories and some of the skills of his older counterpart, but he was still a ways off from being able to match his expertise.
Idly he wondered if he would ever be able to fully manifest Unlimited Blade Works as his counterparts had. He knew that he still possessed the same Reality Marble within him, but his internal world and EMIYA's was incompatible due to the changes in his personality. As a result he couldn't use the same method to actualize his internal world upon reality; he had to find a new method, one that worked for him and his new set of beliefs.
Still, that was a far off goal, for now he'd be more than happy to settle for successfully modifying his style to take full advantages of the changes he'd undergone.
And there was only one road for that that he knew how to take.
Experience.
Experience. Experience. Experience.
That was how his counterpart had developed it, and that was how he was going to modify it. He'd simply keep fighting opponent after opponent, slowly modifying his approach using what he learnt in battle. It was a painful and exhaustive method, but it gave him the advantage of also gaining combat experience at a rapid rate in comparison to regular practice. His resurrected servants knew not to kill him, but apart from that anything else was acceptable. His newly strengthened bones ensured that his losing a limb wasn't likely, and his healing, boosted by both his nature as a Campione and Avalon in his body, ensured he'd recover quickly. As such he was growing used to slashes, stabs and bludgeonings, he didn't like them, but he was getting used to them.
Still, little by little he was learning what worked better for him. It was a small alteration, but it was only the first step after all. If he wanted to make further progress he was going to have to face enemies of his own level or higher, his servants were helpful, but none of them could match up to him when he was using the power of his Dragon Slaying Hero Authority.
Idly he wondered if there was any way he could convince Kusanagi-san into sparring with him, as a fellow Campione then surely they could operate on the same . . .
What was he thinking?
At just what point had he stopped thinking of the seventh Campione as a potential threat that needed to be deceived and misled? Certainly his own observations had led him to conclude that the younger teen wasn't some egotistical tyrant nor was he some ambition driven power seeker, so that had eliminated the gravest of his worries. He even knew that Kusanagi-san had a set of ethics that he could approve of, his rescue of Ena-san even when it had proven to be inconvenient to him had proven that.
Still despite all that the black haired King was not someone he could regard as a comrade or someone he could trust.
So why had he just thought of offering to have a friendly spar to his fellow King? A spar was something conducted with those you trusted since it gave away so much knowledge of what you were capable of.
With a sigh Shirou let himself fall back and lay flat out on the dojo's floor staring at the ceiling. Maybe he should just admit it to himself. He'd put all that effort into his actions and his preparation and the whole time the principle threat to him had existed nowhere but inside his own head. Actually the more he thought about it the more of a kinship the red haired teen found himself feeling with his fellow Devil King.
Having read the file that the Committee had provided him about Kusanagi-san's history he could see certain parallels between them. The seventh Campione had been to all intents and purposes a normal person until a series of bizarre events had led to him becoming a God Slayer. For all his personal problems and his passing knowledge of Magecraft Shirou had also been a pretty normal teenager until he got dragged into the Fifth Heaven's Feel.
The simple fact of the matter was that Kusanagi Godou, far from being corrupted or intoxicated by his powers, in fact regarded his position as a Campione as something of a nuisance. As a result the chances that he was planning a surprise attack on Shirou were as close to zero as made no odds.
By the same token it seemed that it was unlikely that the History Compilation Committee would double cross their agreement with him and launch their own surprise attack. All the tomes and scrolls that he'd been supplied with on the subject of Campione agreed that throughout history the only people that could hope to defy a Devil King were Gods, some mysterious beings referred to as 'Angels' and their fellow God Slayers. There had been a couple of exceptions to this rule such as ridiculously powerful sages, but they were few and far between.
Quite simply the accepted rules for dealing with Campione could be summed up fairly easily.
1: Don't bother fighting them; it's utterly pointless unless you've got a power of an equal level backing you up.
2: Obey the orders of a Campione no matter what they are. If you don't its well within their power to force your obedience and doing so usually results in massive property damage.
3: Lend all aid possible to a Campione when they're hunting or fighting a god. It helps the situation get resolved quicker so that with any luck they'll go away that much sooner.
4: Under no circumstances try to control, manipulate, brainwash, hypnotize, drug or in any way forcefully influence a Campione's will. Pompeii is an excellent example of what can happen if you try.
Naturally the 'official' versions of those rules used more elaborate language and far more words, as though they could bury the facts beneath diplomatic niceties. But once you stripped away all the excess that was what it boiled down to.
It seemed that for the most part all his and Illya's careful preparations had been unnecessary. They'd spent feverish days working to have the mansion as close to an impregnable fortress as they could, and it looked like there'd be nobody crazy enough to test them.
Quite honestly he wasn't sure how he felt about that. On the one hand it seemed that there wouldn't be a fight and so there'd be no live lost or endangered, and that was something he was just fine with. On the other hand he couldn't help but feel an irrational pinprick of disappointment that he'd not get the chance to see how well his plans would hold up to reality.
Further thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the dojo's door. Mildly annoyed that his train of thought had been interrupted Shirou stood up and walked over to the door.
As it turned out the knocker was one of Illya's new servants, a man in his mid forties that was wearing an expression of acute terror.
Shirou grudgingly admitted that there might be the tiniest smidgen of an outside chance that he might have been a tad too harsh in his dealings with his adopted sister's new 'minions'. The problem was that he'd been absolutely furious at the time, but had promised Illya not to harm her latest acquisitions. So he'd relieved his temper with a detailed explanation of just what he'd do to them if they should ever cross him again. An explanation highlighted with the use of a few Traced swords and hastily procured manikin.
Since then the former members of the Circle of the Chosen had treated him in much the same way one might a man of questionable mental stability who was holding a pair of live grenades. It had been satisfying for the first couple of days, but after that it had started to grate on his nerves quite a bit. So for the past few weeks he'd been doing his best to at least partly allay their fears that he'd take it into his head to go through on his threats, unfortunately it seemed that he'd been a bit too convincing.
Still he had to keep it up if he ever wanted to have them stop treating him like a ticking bomb with a broken timer.
"Yes, how can I help you?" He kept his tone as calm and soothing as he could, but the older man still looked at though he were facing a drunk firing squad.
"Mistress Illya-sama asked me to ask you if you could come to her Workshop, there's something going on that she feels she needs to speak to you about."
Shirou blinked. That was something of a surprise; Illya was normally quite secretive of what she was doing in there. He still hadn't managed to get a second look at her fantastic miniature city since the night that she'd first shown it to him.
Of course she had been willing to show off her puppet Berserker, now that had been something.
"Your Highness?"
Oh, he'd let his thoughts wander again.
"Very well, I'll just change my clothes."
He doubted it would be a good idea to show up in his sweat strained workout clothes.
-()-
Illya frowned at her Mystic Code as though it were deliberately doing its best to be difficult.
After the resounding success it had shown in detecting the god Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi the young Einzbern had been very pleased with herself. Granted the link she'd made between herself and the miniature city had woken her up in the middle of the night with a sensation rather similar to a dozen temple bells going off in her head. But it had worked, a half formed idea that she'd thrown together for as much as an exercise in fine control of Prana manipulation as anything else and it had worked.
That had been her big project after she'd succeeded (or failed depending on how you looked at it) in the summons that resulted in her puppet Berserker. She'd acquired further soil and stone samples and integrated them into the existing design. After that rather than being simply a perfect miniature map of a part of Tokyo her Mystic Code had evolved beyond her expectations
What had once been a solid statue-scape that would periodically update itself was now a board of animated golden mercury that continually updated itself so fast that it was pretty much a miniature real time recreation. And it was also no longer limited to a single area, now she could use it as a type of scrying board that worked anywhere that she had samples from. So far she had been working on expanding its area from just Tokyo, but on a whim had also added samples from Kyoto and Sendai.
All in all it was what she regarded to be her greatest success, save for her Berserker copy of course.
Now though, the beautiful golden device was giving her trouble.
A knock on the door brought her out of her irritated thoughts and back to the matter at hand.
"Illya-sama? I'm told that you wanted to see me."
As the black haired member of the Committee came in Illya could feel what she jokingly thought of as her 'MS Level' begin to rise. She honestly wasn't sure at just what point she'd developed this strange fascination with maids, but aside from her initial, and rather embarrassing, loss of control she'd managed to keep her composure around the new housekeeping staff.
Right now though the snowy haired girl had other thoughts on her mind, so it wasn't too difficult to ignore the little part of her that was going 'Squuueeeeeee' in delight at how cute Kaida-san looked in that maid's uniform.
"Yes, I'm having some trouble with Mini City Guide and I was hoping that you might know something to help. I was hoping to get it all fixed before Shirou gets here."
She gestured at the tiny recreation of a city, which was now centred on the Minato ward.
"I created this in order to detect the divine auras of Heretic Gods whenever they appeared. I thought it worked fine, after all it did spot Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi when it appeared to fight Godou-san. The problem is that since last night I've been getting all sorts of weird readings from it that I can't understand."
To highlight her irritation the miniature city suddenly melted away and was replaced with an image of a forested mountain. It took her mystic link with the Code a moment to realize that it had relocated its main area of sensing to Nikkou National Park.
"Argh, there it is again." The shorter girl turned towards the maid while all but throwing up her hands in frustration. "It's been like that all day; I keep getting signals that I can't understand. They feel like Heretic Gods, but then they don't. I really don't get it.
"Now look at it, there're one . . . two . . . three, three signals. No, wait, arghhh, look at it! Now there're four, and none of them feel right. None of them feel like full Gods, but they all feel similar."
However Kaida-san wasn't paying much attention to her, instead her eyes were fixed on the tiny recreation of the National Park.
-()-
As one of the most powerful Hime-Miko in the Committee she had been tutored by a number of high ranking teachers. To them she had been an excellent student, eager, attentive and gifted; her sole area of disappointment had been her utter disinterest and lack of talent for any sort of combative activity. That had given them no end of headaches, the Dragon's Roar was a gift strong enough that if used to its full potential it could give even Heretic Gods pause, and here it was in the possession of one who regarded it as little more than an inconvenient burden.
However despite that small disappointment she was a model student, so much so that her teachers ended up giving in to her enthusiasm and curiosity and teaching her a bit more than they should have done. By the time the higher ups cottoned onto what was happening and put a stop to it Kaida had learnt quite a few of the Committee's better kept secrets.
And among them was the knowledge of just what it was that was kept at the Saitenguu at Nikkou's Toushouguu.
However while the Hime-Miko turned maid had been lost in thought Illya had disappeared under the table that held up the tiny golden landscape and was doing something underneath it. Despite the sudden terrible suspicion growing within her Kaida couldn't help but restrain a giggle. Lying on her back while she worked at the surface above her made Illya-sama look rather like a tiny adorable mechanic.
Then there was a noise from the golden artefact, a noise that could only be described as; 'Gwuralunk'.
"Ha-HAH!"
Illya-sama's pleased voice was muffled slightly by the large amount of gold above her, but there was no mistaking the satisfaction in her tone.
As the small white haired young mistress wriggled out from beneath her creation Kaida found her eyes drawn back to the model landscape. There, in the same spot where before there had only been a miniature temple there were now four little spires each with a glowing light at their tips. Two of those spires had blue lights, but the other two seemed to be flashing between red, green and orange as though they couldn't make up their minds. One thing that did strike her though was that one of those indecisive lights was at least twice the size of the other.
"That's what was throwing me off," the young Einzbern stood up grinning like a generously carved pumpkin. "I didn't have the filter set up right, so most of the signals were messing each other up. That should get it sorted out, now what . . . do . . . we . . ."
Her voice trailed off as she stared at the small collection of glowing little spires.
"Oh dear."
"Um . . . what do those lights mean Illya-sama?" Kaida asked hesitantly.
"I don't know what the two that are changing colours are; I've never encountered anything like them so my Code can't recognize them. But I do know what the other two are.
"They are Campione."
The young Renjou felt her blood freeze in her veins. Two Campione? Two? This could not be good, not good at all. The truce or alliance or whatever it was that Emiya-sama and Kusanagi-sama had was extremely rare. She'd done a bit more research after her first meeting with the eighth Campione and had found that about seven times out of ten whenever Kings met then they would fight. And the longer they remained in proximity to each other the more likely it was that such a confrontation would occur.
To her knowledge for two Campione to be so near to each other and not battle had only happened three times in recorded history.
Now at least one more Campione had entered the picture, meaning that the delicate balance that had held up until now was almost certain to end. She could only wince internally at that thought, the last time that Campione had battled in this country it had resulted in the destruction of an iconic landmark. She shuddered to think what could take place if three of the God Slayers were involved.
"Now they're definitely of divine nature," Illya-sama muttered as she studied the two shifting lights. "But they aren't like any of the gods I've met so far. Could they be demigods? Mortals possessed by gods? Some sort of avatar? Hey Kaida-san, do you know what they could be?"
-()-
Illya glanced up in mild irritation when she received no answer to her question. That was unusual for the newly trained maid, normally she was ready and waiting to answer any queries the snowy haired girl might have for her.
The black haired young woman in question was staring at the small group of indicator lights as though she were expecting them to leap from the golden surface and attack her.
"Kaida-san?"
With a quick shake of her head the former Committee agent seemed to come out of her internal world.
"Ah, sorry Illya-sama. Yes, what could they be, well . . . rather than gods they might be divine beasts. Those are either spirits that serve a god or a portion of a god's power that has been separated and given a sort of independent existence. It . . . it could also be a priestess like Ena-sama, one with the gift of Divine Possession, acting in concert with an affiliated god to channel a portion of their power. It could also be a Divine Ancestor, a former goddess that has lost the majority of their divinity, but retained their immortality and substantial power. Or it could be a god that is in some sort of reduced state, such as hibernation or incapacitation."
The answer was . . . informative, but there was something slightly off. Be it in her wording or her tone there was something about the way that Kaida-san had chosen to answer the question that set off alarm bells ringing in Illya's head.
"What aren't you telling me Kaida-san?"
The question was almost a shot in the dark, a guess and a hunch, but it seemed to hit home since the former Hime-Miko visibly flinched.
"I'm sorry Illya-san, I find myself in something of a conundrum, I've sworn an oath to keep the secrets of the Committee, and yet at the same time I have also sworn an oath to serve you and Emiya-sama. Do you see the problem I find myself in?"
The young Einzbern nodded at that. She'd only known the new maid for a couple of weeks, but that had been long enough to get a decent impression of her character. She was dutiful and earnest in everything that she did, so much so that it had endeared her rather to the snowy haired young girl. After she'd apologised to the maid for her rather embarrassing loss of control when first confronted with the black haired young woman in her maid's uniform the two of them had become better acquainted. It had been after that that Illya had granted her the right to address her by the shortened version of her name.
Granted the maid still insisted on adding a 'san' to the end, saying that it wouldn't be proper otherwise, but it was still something.
Illya was also pretty sure she knew how much Kaida's honour meant to her, so she knew how awkward a position this was for her to be in.
"Is there anything I can do to help? What if Shirou asked you?"
"I . . ." the young maiden hesitated for a second before nodding, "That . . . yes, that could work. If you ask me to tell you using the authority granted to you by Emiya-sama as his sister then I think it would be acceptable. When we first came here he told us that you had the right to speak with his full backing, though we did have the right to query with him if we were doubtful of your orders."
"Then by my position as the sister of the eighth Campione and with the authority empowered to me by him I ask you to reveal the secret that you believe to be relevant."
Okay maybe that had been a bit on the pompous and flowery side, she admitted to herself, but it seemed to be what Kaida-san had been waiting for.
"Saitenguu is a Divine Monarch's temple that is protected by a strong barrier and sealing spell. It's in the care of the Kuhoudzuka family, one of the four great families that originally founded the History Compilation Committee. The temple and its spells are set up in such a way so that if certain conditions are met then it is possible for that family to release the might of the Divine Monarch in such a way that they can influence what it is that he'll battle."
"This Divine Monarch, that's a god, right?" Illya asked the question as she stared at the larger of the two fluctuating lights.
"Yes, centuries ago several great sages worked a marvel that succeeded in turning a powerful and troublesome Steel Heretic God into a sword that would serve to protect the nation. Under the influence of the seal the Divine Monarch serves to defeat dragons and defend Japan from the serpents of the earth."
The former agent of the Committee was breathing slightly hard as she stopped talking, as though she had just done something strenuous.
"So you knew that there was a god that had effectively been caged. Is that why you didn't want to tell Shirou about this?" Illya's voice was soft, but slightly flat.
"I don't have any doubts as to Emiya-sama's character," Kaida-san retorted her face coming up to meet the young Einzbern's stare measure for measure. "Certainly some Campione would immediately seek to release the Divine Monarch in order to battle him, but I fully believe that Shirou-sama would never do something so reckless or dangerous. However I swore an oath upon learning of this, and it was not easy to break that oath, even if it was in order to keep another."
Illya nodded at that, and as she did so she inwardly smiled. She wondered if Kaida-san had noticed that in the midst of her passionate speech she had referred to her adopted brother by his given name for the first time. He'd been trying to get them to at least call him Shirou-sama instead of Emiya-sama for almost their entire time working here. Did this mean that he'd finally gotten through her strict sense of propriety? Would Manaka end up following suit?
With a shake of her head she dismissed the idle thought and focused back on her Mystic Code.
"Yes," she mumbled out loud, "If a god were to be behind several layers of Bounded Fields, or at least something similar, then that might cause the kind of interference that might produce this kind of reaction."
Her eyes focused upon the second flickering light. It was definitely smaller than the first, and had a look to it that made her think of it as being fragile.
"I-I think it might be a dragon." Kaida-san said cautiously.
"A dragon?"
"My sensei said that there were a number of conditions to releasing the Divine Monarch from his temple. He never straight out said it, but I think that dragons are involved somehow, either as a foe to be released against or as a sacrifice to be used."
Illya turned back to her Mini City Guide (She really had to think of a better name for it now that she thought about it. After all it wasn't just a guide to the city any more, perhaps . . . Mini Atlas Guide?) and stared at the small collection of lights.
"So it looks like we've got at least one unknown Campione, an unknown factor that could be a dragon, and a powerful god that has spent several centuries trapped and could soon be released. I don't know about you Kaida-san but that looks like a recipe for disaster if you ask me."
Wordlessly the black haired Hime-Miko nodded her agreement.
"Sorry that took me a bit," Shirou's apologetic but cheerful tone broke into the rather grim mood so suddenly that the two girls had to restrain themselves from jumping in startlement. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about Illya?"
-()-
Shirou had to put genuine effort into keeping his expression level as he listened to what his adopted sister and Kaida-san had been able to learn or deduce.
Two Campione, a possible dragon and a powerful god, all in one place and all almost certainly fighting. This was bad, very very bad.
Two Campione could be bad enough, he'd read up on what normally happened when Campione battled, and the fact was that if only a few buildings or landmarks got demolished then you could count yourself as lucky. In the worst cases the battle between God Slayers could turn fertile farming fields into blasted wastelands in a single day.
Dragons could be even more difficult to deal with if not handled correctly. Since these mighty beasts could embody the vitality of a land simply slaying them out of hand could prove disastrous as the land that had previously enjoyed their blessings would suddenly lose the ability to grow trees or crops. What was even worse was that since dragons were often closely associated with the powerful earth mother goddesses they could be regarded as some of the stronger types of Divine Beasts, so even if you did finish them off it could lead to unwanted attention from their originators.
And last, but by no means least, was whatever god had been locked up in Saitenguu. Gods, even relatively benevolent ones, could be immensely destructive or dangerous by their mere presence alone. When a Heretic God descended from their legend to the mortal plane they didn't have to do anything to be a threat, though they normally did anyway, their simple existence was enough.
It was a well documented phenomenon, and one that was part of the reason why Campione were so revered. If a war god should descend then a war will erupt in the place where he has appeared. If an ocean god should appear then great storms and tidal waves will result. If a sun god should manifest then a terrible heat wave and drought will inevitably be caused. This was a fact known to all practioners of magic, that Heretic Gods were a threat to all mankind by their very existence.
From what Kaida-san had said it seemed as though the sealed god was a powerful one, and that led him to wonder just what kind of havoc would be wrought if he was somehow set free.
Very very bad.
For a moment he stood in place, the world seeming to freeze around him. Inside him he could feel an instinctual call to battle beginning to form. There was his natural enemy, all else was unimportant all that needed to be done was for him to travel there and do battle. With a conscious effort of will Shirou forced the urge down and strained to address the situation from a totally rational perspective.
This wasn't a simple case, if any such existed, of a god appearing and it being his duty to face it. This situation already seemed to involve more than its fair share of Devil Kings and had a totally unknown factor thrown in there just to make things that much more interesting. If he was to go there himself would it simply become a case of him throwing another burning torch into a fireworks factory?
On the other hand he was a Campione. All the privileges he enjoyed came with but a single price, when gods appeared; it was his duty to subdue them before they could inflict disasters upon humanity. This could be his first real opportunity to uphold that responsibility, would he shirk it? There were already two of his brethren there; if he chose not to go then he would have a justifiable reason for it.
But was that what he wanted?
Since acquiring the tremendous powers that he now wielded the young Emiya had focused on guaranteeing the safety of himself and his adopted sister and on trying to work out a plan that might get them home. Ever since he'd learned of the sole responsibility he now had he hadn't really thought about it. Even when he'd gone out to investigate the god that turned out to be Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi it had been because he had wanted to confront a potential threat as soon as he could and as far away from Illya as he'd been able to manage.
Now though this was different. The situation was a long way from his home and already could be in hand.
But . . .
But he'd been labelled a King by these people, by those he had resurrected, and by those from the Committee.
It was stupid and it was irrational, but for some reason he couldn't help but feel a certain . . . not obligation or duty, but rather a desire to act as a King should. He'd personally been in Saber's company for long enough that he'd come to consider her a friend, and in his memories he'd come to consider her something even more. He could also remember his other selves encountering Gilgamesh, and even though the man was an egotist to the point of madness there was no denying the regalness and majesty which he radiated like heat from an inferno.
It was a strange mix of emotions, a sense of duty to repay those who had submitted tot him, a desire to act as a King should, a hazy want to somehow not shame the Kings he had encountered by failing in his unwanted station and some lingering remnants of his childhood dream to become an Ally of Justice.
It was stupid in a way, he could just imagine EMIYA glaring at him with cynical irritation and uttering some caustic jab about useless pride or foolish naivety.
Well, he was going to do it anyway.
"Thanks Illya," he said as he walked out of the workshop and onto the gardens lawn. "On Snow I should be able to get there pretty fast. Hopefully I won't even be needed, but I'd best be there as insurance against anything going wrong."
Yes, that was a good reason. He'd treat it the same way that he'd treated Kusanagi-san facing off against Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi. If the other party had the situation in hand then he'd not interfere, but if things got out of control then he'd at least be there to lend his own strength.
However as he turned and prepared to speak the words that would bring his winged mount into existence a single sentence from his adopted sister stopped him cold.
"Shirou, I'm coming with you."
He turned, ready to refuse her, ready to say that it was too dangerous, that he wanted her to stay here, that he didn't want her in harms way. However all that was cut off as she spoke a single word and he saw what it was that had appeared towering beside her.
"Berserker."
He knew that she wasn't threatening him, the summoning of her most potent weapon was meant as a reminder that she was far from helpless.
As he stared at the massive lead grey giant standing beside the white haired girl the eighth Campione could only barely hold back a shudder of fear. He'd faced some terrifying things in the past such as a corrupted Sakura and Saber Alter. He had the memory of having faced other terrifying presences such as Gilgamesh in his counterpart's memories and Dead Apostle Ancestors in EMIYA'S. However despite having that collection of horrors rattling about in his head the mad warrior of the fifth Heaven's Feel held a special place in his list of Most Frightening Things. He might not be at the top, but he had a special place.
Hell, he'd damned near swallowed his own tongue when Illya had first demonstrated her ability to call up her puppet Berserker to show him for the first time. He knew that he could slay gods by the dozen, by the score, and accumulate enough powers to make the Clock Tower's magi weep tears of blood in envy, and even if he did he'd still feel a little scared if he faced Berserker again. It was irrational he knew, with his new powers he could have faced the original on an almost even field, so this flawed copy would only prove to be a challenging but inevitably defeated foe. Still it wasn't anything he couldn't handle; being slightly scared of something didn't mean he was helpless against it.
On the other hand he supposed he should be thankful. This copy might not be quite as strong as the original article but it was still a force to be reckoned with. And with it he could honestly say that Illya was an individual that even Heretic Gods wouldn't be able to take lightly.
And with that power at her disposal did he honestly have the right to tell her to stay behind? Hell, for that matter could he even stop her if she was determined to go? Realistically the only way he could would be to use a Noble Phantasm to drop her into a temporary coma and then leave her in her room. And if he did that then he imagined that she would not be happy once she regained consciousness.
He opened his mouth to speak his assent to her declaration, but before he could say a word Kaida-san spoke up.
"I think it would be best if I accompanied you."
The words were sufficiently startling that Shirou lost his train of thought and turned to her in surprise.
"Why?"
Illya had beaten him to the punch on asking the obvious question.
"I . . . I think that part of the interference to your artefact is that the signals are coming from within the Shinkyu Sacred Stables. That means this isn't as simple as just going to the Saitenguu, that's simply near to where the true entrance is. If you have to actually enter then you'll need me to show you where it is."
Shirou didn't argue. Oh he certainly planned to, but first he wanted to get something done first.
"Hooves that thunder over the earth, wings that soar through the sky, sacred beast born from a monster yet pure as finest silver, hear my call and serve as the mount to a hero once more."
At his command the Pegasus that was the incarnation of this Authority appeared. In his mind he could immediately feel the connection coming into being, feel the ready steely power of his mount ready to serve.
"Look I-"
"If Kaida-sama is going then I will accompany her."
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the arrival of the Hime-Miko's bodyguard. Manaka-san was standing straight as a soldier on a parade ground and even though she was still clad in her maid uniform she managed to look ready for combat.
"Manaka, you don't have to-" began Kaida-san, only to be cut off by her friend.
"Yes I do. I'm your bodyguard and attendant Kaida-sama, I swore an oath to keep you safe and I'm not going to let you walk into this mess without my protection."
"How do you know where we're going?" asked Illya.
"As soon as I heard that you'd called both Kaida-sama and Emiya-sama I knew something important was going on," replied the warrior witch, "So a slipped a monitoring charm onto Kaida-sama when she passed me in the corridor. That allowed me to hear everything and gave me enough time to get my prepared bag."
"You-you spied on us?" the black haired young woman exclaimed in shock.
"Yes," replied her friend without a moment's hesitation or a scrap of shame. "And it's a good thing I did or you wouldn't even have thought of me coming along. You're entering a situation with Heretic gods, Campione and who knows what else Kaida-sama, you'll need every scrap of protection you can find. I admit I'm no match for anything you might run into in a fight, but I'm sure I can at least ensure you'll get away."
"Manaka . . ."
Seeing that Kaida-san seemed to be at a loss for words Shirou decided that now was as good a time as any to speak up.
"I understand all of you have good reasons for wanting to accompany me. The problem is that Snow can only carry two, perhaps three at the absolute most. Unless someone can think of a way to change that the-"
His words were once again cut off, not by any other human though. Rather he was brought to a halt by a sense of . . . helpfulness that surged to him through the link that he shared with his steed. Surprised by the sudden feeling he turned to look at the winged horse and could only blink in startlement at what he saw.
Snow had always been a bit bigger than a normal horse would have been, large enough that both he and Illya had been able to comfortably ride it together. Now though, before its master's astonished eyes, the legendary mount was visibly growing larger. Its dimensions swelled, but at the same time all of the proportions remained the same. After a few seconds the growth ceased and the eighth Campione found himself staring at the white winged stallion that was now twice its original size. Easily large enough to carry all four of them.
For a single bleak moment he wondered if even his own Authorities were conspiring against him in order to make this day as troublesome as possible. Then he shook his head to dispel the thought. No point in dwelling on 'what ifs' just deal with the world as it is, don't go chasing after what you want it to be. He could practically hear Rin lecturing him in his head.
"Well, it looks like we can all go now."
Turning around he met the gazes of all three of the young women facing him and tried to see if any of them might be having second thoughts. No, no such luck. Every single one of them had enough steel in their gazes to forge a good sized sword from, trying to dissuade them at this point would be as pointless as beating his head against a rock.
That left him with two options, he could waste his time, and probably earn himself a headache, trying to convince them not to go and so delay his departure by precious minutes, or he could simply accept reality and stop wasting time. Right now he honestly felt a flash of sympathy for Rin.
Was this what it had been like for her when she had to deal with him? If so then he owned her an apology if he ever made it back to his home dimension. An apology and a packet of high strength aspirin.
With a mental order he had Snow kneel down until its belly was resting on the lawn's grass. Given its increased size this was the only way that anyone would be able to mount it without having to literally jump onto its back.
"Alright, since all of you are determined to come with me and I'm not dumb enough to try to stop you we might as well get going now. Everyone mount up.
"Don't worry," he added as he saw Kaida-san and Manaka-san eyeing his mount warily, "Part of Snow's abilities is that once you're mounted the only way you can fall off is if he's severely injured."
For a moment he'd considered not letting them into that particular fact, but he'd seen the determination on their faces and knew that they'd be coming along regardless of any fears that they might have. Given that he'd felt it pointless to let them worry when he could reassure them.
-()-
Manaka was honestly having a hard time believing that she was actually awake, that this all wasn't some sort of fever dream or the like.
She was currently on the back of a giant winged horse, her arms clasped tight around Kaida-sama's waist and flying through the air faster than the swiftest bird could manage.
This was it. She was actually going to follow a Campione into a battle with a god. Granted she didn't want to do it, in all truth she'd much prefer to wave goodbye to Emiya-sama as he went off to battle and hope that he and the god killed each other.
No, that was just her frustration talking. She'd admit that she was a bit irritated with how her life was going, and sure blaming the King to whom her fate was now tied would make her feel better. In all truth he was a far better master to serve under than most, he didn't flaunt his power or dominion over her and he certainly never tried to abuse that same authority. If anything he seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable with the level of power he had. He tried to hide it, but she was gifted at reading people thanks to their Aura Signs and some of that skill had carried over to her ability to read faces. Emiya-sama's Aura Sign might still be incomprehensible to her, but she had caught enough hint tells that she was sure of her assessment.
Then there was also the matter of the vision that she'd had while reading Kaida-sama's Aura Sign, whatever her future was it seemed that the Devil King and his sister were involved in it somehow. She wanted that future, wanted the joy, power and bond that she had sensed in it.
And of course there was the Hime-Miko to whom she had sworn her life. She was following her duty now, accompanying her King into battle even though she knew it could well mean her death. And what could Manaka do except follow? Even the option of cracking her over the head, knocking her out and tying her up until common sense prevailed was denied to her. Firstly because she'd never had the chance given that Emiya-sama had been there the whole time. And secondly because with her Dragon's Roar Kaida-sama could have easily freed herself as soon as she awakened.
No, it looked like the warrior witch was going to have to accompany her precious friend into battle.
While wearing a maid's uniform.
It wasn't the first time she'd had to fight in an unusual get up; two years ago she'd been forced to engage in a pitched battle with some assassins while wearing nothing but her underwear. The killers had tried to murder the man under her protection just as she'd been getting ready to get into the bath. In the end she'd been able to take them down, but by then the fight had moved into the middle of the street. Only a rather copious amount of hypnosis on the bystanders had allowed her to preserve her modesty.
Granted she had a change of clothes for both her and Kaida-sama ready in the rucksack on her shoulders, as well as her battle wands and other fighting equipment, but she doubted they'd get much of a chance to change their garb once they arrived.
She tried to distract herself from what was to come and instead tried to focus on the present. She was riding the Pegasus after all, wasn't that worth some attention? This was the mount of not one but two of the great heroes of Greek legend, Perseus and Bellerophon, and now she was on its back. This view was one normally reserved for heroes and gods, so she'd better appreciate it while she could.
Below them the city had given way to countryside a long time ago. In her head Manaka tried to work out exactly how fast they were going. Nikko was about a hundred and twenty five kilometres from Tokyo, and as far as she could see they'd just left the last house of what she thought was Omiya. That was a good twenty five kilometres from the greater Tokyo area, and they couldn't have been flying for more than five minutes. Granted they hadn't started out in the middle of the city, but still . . .
Such speed, that meant that the winged horse was flying at roughly three hundred kilometres an hour, and she somehow knew that it wasn't pushing as hard as it could go. It was humbling in a way, a further highlighting of the fact that even though she was talented in the end she was not able to operate on the same level as a Campione, the gulf between them was simply too vast.
Shaking her head to dispel such gloomy thoughts she leaned forward and addressed Kaida-sama.
"Do you have any plans as to what we'll do once we arrive?"
The Hime-Miko shook her head before craning her neck to look at her friend.
"Interfering in a conflict between Campione and Gods is not something that we are really capable of. Our duty is to provide Emiya-sama with what aid we can and then stay out of his way so as not to hold him back. I don't know what's going on, but I do know that it's important that we accompany him. I don't know why, I just know it."
"Is . . . is it like that day?"
Manaka didn't have to name exactly what day it was, both of them knew she was referring to the day when, guided by her intuition, the wielder of the Dragon's Roar had volunteered them to take up work as maids in the eighth Campione's mansion. Even though she had no proof the warrior witch was sure that it was some form of prophecy that had led her friend to make such a rash-seeming decision.
As the young Renjou nodded her head in silent confirmation Manaka could only give her own nod of understanding.
The rest of the journey was in silence. Emiya-sama and his sister exchanged a few words, which largely amounted to telling each other to be careful and to come out of this safely. Before long the great sides of Mount Nyoho came into view, and Manaka knew they were getting close to their objective. Such a trip would normally have taken an entire day by car and hours even on a train, yet they had accomplished it in less than half an hour.
Slowly they began to draw closer to the ground.
"Isn't there a risk that people will see us if we go so low?" Kaida-sama's question voiced the same thing that Manaka had been wondering.
"That's not a problem, Snow and all his riders are held within the range of his divinity and so are invisible to normal people."
They were so low to the ground now that the warrior witch could make out the figures of individuals with ease; also as they were drawing closer to their goal the heavenly steed was slowing down. These two facts combined to allow her to take in the area surrounding the shrine.
In a way it was a rather horrible sight, everywhere and everything seemed to be speckled by a rain of blood. Crimson spots dotted everything, the pavement, the plants, the buildings and even the people. And the people weren't in good shape at all; everywhere that she looked she could see the sprawled bodies of the unconscious tourists that had been here when this whole mess began.
She knew what had happened to them, she could practically taste it in the air with her witchcraft. Somehow the droplets of blood that seemed to be on everything had created a circulating network of flowing energies, which had absorbed the life force from the surrounding people into itself. This didn't seem to have been deadly, but staying in that state for too long could be dangerous.
Even as they moved forwards the warrior witch felt a wave of power wash over them. That was definitely the aura of a Heretic God arriving upon the mortal plane. It seemed they'd managed to arrive just as the situation was coming to a head.
"We're getting close to where this is all happening," commented Emiya-sama over his shoulder. "It's just a little bit further, get ready to jump off in case I have to start fighting immediately."
They were moving past the main shrine now, off to the side and into the woods. The main building whipped past below them as they sped by and Manaka could feel her friend's muscles begin to tense. She could understand that, there was a kind of tension in the air, one she was instinctively readying herself for action in response to. Adrenaline was being pumped into her blood and that blood was surging through her veins as her heart beat faster in preparation.
The instant of arrival came so fast that in normal circumstances the young Kuhoutsuka might have missed it. However right now her entire state of being was keyed up to the max, so it wasn't a problem to her.
The flying mount came swooping down into a corner of Okusha inner shrine that had apparently been transformed into a small patch of wasteland. They were moving faster than an arrow, but Manaka was still able to see several details. It was pretty obvious that the clearing had been the site of a battle recently, quite an awesome one if the way in which the ground had been completely razed was anything to go by. In more or less the middle of the bared mountain land was a small group of people, and hovering over them was what appeared to be a young girl dressed in Beijing garb, wearing a mask hanging from the side of her face, holding a steel staff in her hand and was apparently standing on a small golden cloud.
Then they were flashing past them and Emiya-sama was diving off his mount and leaping straight at the young girl.
This was it; she really really hoped that she'd make it through this alive.
-()-
Shirou knew who his opponent was the second he laid eyes on the girl. Deep within him something had risen up, as though he had sighted a long unseen rival, battle lust had started to flow.
However it wasn't that instinct to fight that drove him to the rather rash attack he was conducting; it was what he'd seen of the small group facing the Heretic God.
Both Erica-san and Liliana-san were easily recognized, their unusual hair and their bright clothing standing out. Having identified them it was easy to divine that one of the two young men with them was Kusanagi-san. He might be slightly harder to immediately recognize, but once you knew to look for him he was much easier to spot. Besides those that he knew there were two others with them, a young woman and a boy in his early teens. Though there wasn't anything obviously dangerous about them his combat instincts were screaming at him that both of them were dangerous, especially the young woman.
Given that the only other times he'd felt similar pressure was from either Servants in the Holy Grail War or from the deities he'd fought he felt it was a fairly safe bet that she was the second Campione that Illya had detected.
However what had forced his hand was the fact that both of those whom he either knew or guessed to be his fellow Kings seemed to be injured. Kusanagi-san looked like he was ready to collapse and the only things holding him up were the two young knights at his sides. The other young woman, who seemed to be dressed in the Chinese style, seemed to be a bit better off, but still looked to be a bit shaky on her feet and was subconsciously clutching at her middle.
Quite simply it looked as though his fellow God Slayers were in no state to be up and about, let alone facing off against a god that was radiating as much power as this one.
So Shirou did the only thing he could think of to distract the god from such temptingly easy targets.
He attacked.
Hurling himself from Snow's back he directed the winged horse to get some distance and then set the girls on its back down on the ground. He wasn't using Dragon Slaying Hero yet, only self-reinforcement; he wanted to keep that as a trump to up his power at a crucial time if he needed to. As he sent the hurried mental order he Traced Kanshou and Bakuya and plunged at the small deity like a missile.
However his arrival had not gone unnoticed, so even as the young Emiya swung both the swords at his target the young girl was already swinging her metal staff around to block the attack.
There was a bright shower of sparks as his Noble Phantasms clashed with the godly weapon, then, with a strength that belied her small stature, the girl swung the staff and sent him hurtling away from her.
Still that was alright, while it would have been nice to take her out in the first attack he knew that such a thing was unlikely, so he'd positioned himself in order to achieve his secondary goal. As he drew on Archer's experience he managed to turn his fall into a controlled tumble and land in between the god and his injured fellow Campione.
"Oh ho? What have we here? Has a third God Slayer arrived to face me? Well, that's alright, a battle with you will be an excellent way to celebrate my return to the world."
Her voice was that of a girl that hadn't even become a teen, but behind it was utter confidence.
Shirou refused to let his opponent rattle him, but instead focused on the metal staff being held by the childish deity.
Unlimited Blade Works might work best in regards to bladed weapons, but it could easily adapt to blunt arms such as staffs, and clubs. As such the young red head had no trouble in analysing the weapon held by his small enemy.
Unlike the blades wielded by Perseus and Hades this weapon wasn't some nameless tool brought into existence simply as a means to an end. This Staff had a name and a history, a legend in fact. Its tale was hundreds of years old, maybe even thousands, and it held many useful powers. Shirou blinked slightly as he felt a duplicate of it form within his Reality Marble. Out of all the things he had seen since coming to this world this was definitely something special, the closest thing to being a Noble Phantasm that he had yet seen, and yet it definitely wasn't.
Its name was Ruyi Jingu Bang, something that literally translated as 'Ideal Golden-bound Cudgel'. It had many powers, such as weighing an immense amount for its size, being able to change its size, multiply itself, and fight according to the whim of its master. It was a famous weapon, and its wielder was just as, if not more, famous.
"Sun Wukong."
Shirou spoke the name as it appeared in his mind, and as he did so a thrill of fear and exhilaration ran down his spine. This wasn't the god of some far off country that he'd only ever seen on a television screen or read about in a book, this was a god that had strong ties even to his home country.
Sun Wukong, otherwise known in Japan as Son Goku, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Born of a mystical stone fertilized by the Earth, King of monkeys and master of the Taoist arts. Consumer of the Peaches of Immortality and the Pills of Longevity, so immortal that even being locked in a crucible and stewed by heavenly fires for forty nine days could not kill him. Thrice times victor against the armies of Heaven and finally hero of the Journey to the West.
And he was a little girl?
Well, if King Arthur could turn out to be a woman he supposed it was reasonable that perhaps other mythological figures might share the same problem. Still that wasn't exactly important right now, right now he had to get ready to fight someone with a very fearsome reputation.
Right, best not to play defensively in this situation, best to retain the initiative. He wasn't ready to go for full lethal force just yet, but he had to at least get her away from the injured Campione.
Both the swords in his hands were hurled at the slight girl, whirling through the air like black and white dervishes. The speeds they were moving at were faster than even the best pitcher in the world could manage, but with two flicks of her staff the child-like deity swatted them aside with contemptuous ease.
That was fine; he hadn't really been expecting to connect with such simple attacks. Their purpose had simple been to distract her, if only for a brief fraction of a second. That was all the time he had needed to Trace his great black bow and ready a nameless low rank Noble Phantasm that had been modified into an arrow. Now all he had to do was tap into Curses without End, load a curse of-
"Don't hurt her!"
The sharp declaration was accompanied by a hand grabbing at his shoulder. Turning his head slightly, though still keeping a careful eye on the still smiling goddess, he saw that a trembling Kusanagi-san.
"Why?" It was a single word question, and one that held the tension Shirou was feeling.
"That's Mariya's little sister, he's possessed her somehow."
Oh. Damn. This could be complicated. How do you fight an enemy that's got a built in hostage?
THNNK
The blow came so fast that he didn't even have time to react. One instant he'd been watching the possessed girl, the next the metal staff had lengthened at speeds faster than the flight of a bullet and had driven its head into his midsection. Damn, stupid stupid stupid, he should have invoked Dragon Slaying Hero as soon as he'd realized whom it was he was facing. With that power he might have been able to dodge the attack, or at least see it coming. At the very least he wouldn't have been quite so hurt by it.
Right now though, he felt as though he'd just been hit by a fired cannonball.
"Oh? So you're not going to give it your best right now?" the tone and question were both mocking despite the sweet voice that was speaking them. "That's a fortunate turn for me. Very well then, even though there are three of you here, I will take care of you all together."
Shirou tried to get to his feet, to force heat back into the body that was trembling with phantom cold, but his limbs wouldn't seem to respond properly. As he shakily got back on his feet a memory of Archer's tugged at his mind, memories of being hit by a martial artist.
That must be it, not only had the blow been powerful, it had also been masterfully accurate, striking at a pressure point or one of his chakras. He didn't know exactly what it was, but whatever it had been was devastatingly effective, though he retained motion his limbs still felt as though the muscles were only slightly stronger than cooked noodles.
"The earth's condition is receptive devotion / Thus the superior man who has breadth of character / Carries the outer world. Kun is the nature of earth!"
That wasn't good. Shirou wasn't any great Authority on magic, but that sounded like some sort of Mantra. In his legend Sun Wukong had been depicted as having mastered many of the secrets of the Taoist arts such as shape shifting and other magics. Shirou really didn't want to see what a god could do with spells, but it looked like he might not have a choice.
The effect became obvious almost immediately, petrification. The ground of the now barren mountain of the Nikkou Toushouguu's Okusha inner shrine was completely changed into solid rock, bleached white as if snow had just fallen to cover the land. Where the small group had previously been standing on blasted earth before, now they were stood upon solid grey stone.
"Hahahaha! I will use the secret art of the stone mountain's rocky caves to imprison you three!"
To the god the mortal companions of the Campione were so insignificant that they didn't even register, all his/her focus was upon the three God Slayers.
Shirou found himself beginning to sink into the earth. It was as though the stone that he stood upon had suddenly taken on the consistency of a bog. Yet his descent into the seemingly liquid rock was swift, by the time he realized what was happening he was already up to his knees and sinking fast. A quick glance behind him showed that both Kusanagi-san and the young woman in Chinese clothing were also sharing the same fate, though their companions seemed to be unaffected.
"Hmm...! Planning on sealing us away!?" the female Campione's voice was beautiful he idly noted. For a brief instant he thought about calling Snow back. If it swooped low enough he could catch hold of one of its hooves and maybe use the force to pull himself free. The only problem with that would be that it would bring Illya and the other two right into the most dangerous place possible if they hadn't dismounted yet.
"Haha, correct! Though you're both injured, I'm not going to underestimate you god-slayers... Eh, rather I should say that being injured makes things more frightening because you are a crazy bunch who doesn't follow common sense. I didn't come to revive all this way just to take a stupid risk like that!"
Shirou heard the cries of distress from the other members of the group as well as from Illya who was apparently watching things from the other side of this new clearing. As the liquid rock closed over him Shirou hoped she wouldn't do anything foolish.
Despite the severity of the situation the eighth Campione wasn't too panicked. The Monkey King had confirmed that they were being sealed rather than slain, that meant imprisonment. If that was the case he was confident that he'd be able to escape using a Traced Noble Phantasm if needed.
"Sun Wukong has mastered the Immortal arts, and is a deity with unlimited divine powers. Though he carries the traits of the warlord of Steel, he is also a god highly skilled in magic. To be imprisoned by such tricks of his, I was far too careless."
The tones of the female Campione's voice were self berating, but surprisingly clear despite their circumstances. Instinctively glancing around Shirou was surprised to find that he could still see the other Devil Kings as though they were underwater rather than within liquid rock, despite how dark their passage was. For that matter he was intrigued to find that they could all breathe enough to speak.
"Did you use up all your strength in the battle just now? Though it is the privilege of young ones to fight without considering the future, for you to obtain victory from me at such a bargain... King Kusanagi... You are quite something."
That was interesting; it seemed that rather than them being defeated by the Monkey King they had been instead weakened by fighting each other. At least that meant that the foe this time wasn't one able to defeat two of his peers at once.
"I-I defeated you? Please don't joke with me."
"It is fine. Even though it is officially a draw, taking into account the difference in experience, the victor is apparent. For a renowned master like me to lose to a young upstart like you, it is an unforgivable mistake. I, Luo Hao, am not one of those stupid fools who deceive themselves."
The dark haired woman showed a slightly displeased expression.
"As the Ruler of the Martial Realm, I approve of your ability. In the match just now, I definitely lost."
So it seemed that Kusanagi-san had emerged as the victor in the match between them, though by the sounds of it the young man didn't seem to share that opinion. Still, it was about time that he broke his silence.
"I don't suppose that either of you have any means at your disposal to escape this situation? If not then we might have a problem."
Both the other Campione turned to face him the dark haired teen with a look that could only be described as put upon while the young woman bore a look that he could only describe as 'innocent arrogance'.
"Ah, Emiya-san, I don't think I've got anything available to me right now that'd do the job." His tone was almost apologetic.
"And what about yourself Madam Luo Hao?"
"You seem to be the better informed than the other King of Wakoku; it is good that you recognize your senior upon the path of domination though."
"It's important to know about one's senpais." The seventh Campione answered. The deduction of her identity had been relatively simple once he had a moment to think. There were only two female Campione, Luo Hao and Madam Aisha, given that the Chinese King was a famed martial artist and that the woman before him was clearly a capable fighter and dressed in the Chinese style he'd been fairly confident in his guess.
"However at the moment there are more pressing concerns than your proper recognition of me, King Kusanagi, King . . . Emiya, do either of you know magic that allows you to survive without water and air?"
"I believe I could manage something if I had to." Replied Shirou as he went over the Noble Phantasms available to him. Though the majority of them were purely combat oriented a surprising number of the weapons EMIYA had accumulated over the years could be used in other ways if you had a bit of imagination.
"How could I? Other than the ability to fight gods, I'm just an ordinary person." Kusanagi-san's answer was much less ambiguous.
"I see... If that's the case, it would be best to return you back to the surface King Kusanagi."
"Back to the surface!? I can get out of here!?"
"Yes. Until the Great Sage's spell finishes, there is still a window of opportunity. If I use my remaining qi, I can send one of us back to the surface."
Luo Hao's offer seemed to come as a quite surprise to the younger teen, but as soon as he recovered he immediately objected.
"But in that case, you and Emiya-san will have to stay in the Netherworld!"
"I don't mind. King Kusanagi, have you not noticed? The air here is getting thinner. The Great Sage is not so merciful as to provide food and water for us captives."
The young Emiya had to admit that he hadn't noticed, but as soon as it was pointed out to him he could taste it. The 'air' they were breathing did taste flatter, stale like the air in a room that hadn't had any ventilation for far too long.
"I am the Ruler of the Martial Realm, the one standing at the pinnacle of Daoist practices. I have long conquered this kind of ascetic training over a hundred years ago, so let me stay."
"Y-You can survive without air and water, that's really amazing. But what about-"
"Don't worry about me," Shirou said breaking the other Campione off, "While I might not be able to match our sempai I do have some methods available to me that should be enough."
The young man's face seemed to crease in indecision.
"I can't just-"
This time it was Luo Hao that cut him off.
"It is no problem. If I abandon you and return to the surface alone . . . Just the thought of that brings a horrible outcome!"
"Ho... Horrible outcome?"
"Correct. Think about it. If I abandon you who just won our match, rumours will begin to spread, saying I took revenge for my defeat. I will be seen as a despicable scoundrel who has betrayed the path of heroism and chivalry!"
"Ah... I see now."
So did Shirou. It would seem that this was a woman that greatly valued her reputation and her pride. Still, he got the impression that she was using that as an excuse to cover for a largely benevolent act to the less experienced King in their number.
An interesting person of exceptional pride.
"Of course, I don't plan on remaining submerged here forever; I will surely find a way to escape... King Kusanagi, in the meantime before I return, you shall have a splendid battle with the Great Sage Equalling Heaven in my stead."
Shirou spoke up again.
"I to will entrust that girl's fate to you Kusanagi-san. My resources are suited to combat, but not to the rescue of one already under possession, certainly not from a God. I shall gamble upon you in this matter.
"Incidentally, please tell my sister I'm safe and will return soon. Please try to keep her and my subordinates safe until I do."
It really was surprising how easily he could now slip into the role of the 'Fake King'. It was only as he finished speaking that he realized he'd adopted the façade as soon as he had addressed his fellow Campione.
Perhaps even stranger was the fact that he was willing to entrust Illya's safety to him. Granted he was powerful and lucky, at least from what he'd seen of him so far, but there was something else. Some quality about him that the red haired teen couldn't quite put his finger on, something that made him think he could be trusted.
"There shall be no problem. I cannot speak for this fellow," and here she waved a hand at the young Emiya, "But I am the one at the Daoist pinnacle, and will surely find this prison's weakness and destroy it. You don't have to worry."
"Indeed," Shirou added, "If something like this was enough to kill me then I'd have stayed dead the first time I died."
Damn, he hadn't meant to say that last bit. Was he becoming so caught up in his role that he was becoming careless? He'd have to be more careful.
Both the other Campione cast slightly puzzled looks at him, but then the martial arts mistress dismissed his words and turned back to the other King of Japan.
"Then let's start — Great Sage of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, dispel the disaster of the inauspicious spirits!"
In a voice that put most professional singers to shame Luo Hao chanted her incantation, and took out a rectangular piece of paper. On it was written complicated script along with the six large characters Ba Gua Zhi Jing Ji Ji, after a brief moment she threw this talisman away.
The piece of paper transformed into a white tiger before Shirou's astonished eyes. The mystical construct seemed to fly through the strange liquid environment in a rapid yet graceful ark. Then the ferocious beast lunged at Godou.
The great white cat opened its great jaws and the fangs skilfully caught the seventh Campione's neck and lifted him. Godou found his body rising continuously.
Within the blink of an eye, he was greatly distanced from the slowly sinking pair of Devil Kings.
"King Kusanagi, I wish you victory. Go fight a battle worthy of a hero."
The transcendent beauty continued to maintain her airs of superiority and spoke these parting words to Godou.
"I'm entrusting my last family to you Kusanagi, take care of her until I free myself or I promise you there'll be Hell to pay."
The eighth Campione's might not have been quite as encouraging, but he meant them quite sincerely.
The white tiger was moving faster now; shooting up into the gloom until even with Reinforcement Shirou's eyes could no longer track him. Having lost sight of the escaping King the young Emiya turned in place and cast his eyes downwards, trying to see how much further they had to fall.
The air was still breathable, but it had heaviness to it, already he could feel his breathing becoming more laboured. Concentrating Shirou employed one of the many tricks that Archer had developed through his life of battle. This one was one that had given him an advantage while pursuing an unscrupulous mage into a high altitude mountain range. It was a form of Reinforcement that worked on the lungs allowing them to extract more oxygen from thin air than would have otherwise been possible. Almost at once his breathing grew easier and his growing headache retreated.
"Ah, so you possess some knowledge of ascetic training as well King Emiya."
He glanced over to the Ruler of the Martial Realm, as she was often known, who was watching him with some interest.
"Merely a few minor skills senpai, enough to ease my difficulties until I can achieve a more suitable solution."
His eyes fixed downwards Emiya Shirou continued to descend into the darkness together with Luo Hao.
-()-
Nikkou Toushouguu was now the realm of the Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong. Throughout the streets, shops and houses men, women and children were transformed into monkeys by the descent of the Heretic God. They were now his worshippers, his subjects.
At Narita airport a young woman who was secretly a Devil King arrived in the country of Japan as part of her hunt for the Divine Ancestor that had escaped her.
In a hidden temple the towering black knight watched silently over the former goddess that had revived him and wondered if she knew what it meant to have the Knight of Betrayal for an ally.
Allies and foes gathered.
For the Gathering of the Four Kings had begun.
Kusanagi Godou
The Seventh Campione
( ) = Using Camel
[ ] = Using Bull
{ } = Using Raptor
Strength – E (B) [B-A++] {D}
Endurance – C+ (A+) [C+] {C+}
Agility – E+ (B+) [C] {A+}
(To my knowledge the act of becoming a Campione enhances ones body to the point of possessing superhuman endurance where one's bones are considered stronger than steel and where muscle fibres can resist the mauling of magical constructs. As such I feel that Godou's base parameters would be above normal human, especially endurance.)
Mana – A+ (Greater than any mortal magic user, even if he doesn't use it for anything other than his Authorities.)
Luck – A++ (Godou has repeatedly demonstrated absurd levels of luck in almost everything he does. Being able to twist probability and attain victory even against such overwhelming foes as Gods lead me to put his luck at an extremely high level. Of course if you were also going to rank his luck with women then the fellow would probably be EX since he seems to snare the heart of practically every girl he meets.)
Noble Phantasm – EX (Assuming I substitute his Authorities for Noble Phantasms then I believe this rank to be appropriate. If I had to rank each Authority then they would be roughly as below:
Gale
Type –Support Rank –C Range – 1 No of Targets – 1 – 10?
Bull
Type –Support Rank –B Range – 1 No of Targets – 1
White Stallion
Type –Anti-Army/Anti-Fortress Rank –A++ Range – 1-99 No of Targets – 1 – 1000
Camel
Type –Support Rank –B Range – 1 No of Targets – 1
Boar
Type –Anti-Fortress Rank –A Range – 1- 199 No of Targets – 1 – 1000
Youth
Type –Support Rank –B Range – 1 No of Targets – 1 – 10?
Raptor
Type –Support Rank –B Range – 1 No of Targets – 1
Ram
Type –Support Rank –B Range – 1 No of Targets – 1Type –Anti-Unit/Anti-Army Rank –A+ Range – 1-49 No of Targets – 1 – 199
Goat
Type –Anti-Unit/Anti-Army Rank –A+ Range – 1-49 No of Targets – 1 – 199
Warrior
Type –Anti-Divinity Rank –EX Range – 1-49 No of Targets – 1 – 199
(This Authority is EX rank because it is capable of cutting through virtually ANY divinity, regardless of strength, so long as Godou possesses the knowledge to produce the spell words to forge it.)
Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi
Type –Anti-Unit Rank –A+ Range – 1- 10 No of Targets – 1 – 20
Skills
Magic Resistance – A (Since even god find it hard to get spells to work on a Campione I think it puts them on the level of being untouchable by modern mages.)
Eye of the Mind (True) – D (While relatively inexperience Godou has faced a wide verity of high level foes. This has resulted in him occasionally getting flashes of inspiration that allow him to attain victory.)
Nature of a Rebellious Spirit – C (A) (Normally Kusanagi is a naturally stubborn individual who digs in his heels when ordered against his nature. Should he receive orders that go against his principles he will even defy the order of a deity.)
