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.
With my last chapter my meeting between Shirou and Watanabe was something of a gamble. The idea of two radically different points of view on the same encounter struck me as amusing so I chose to write it to see how it would go. Interestingly enough it seems to have received a love/hate reception in that lots either have one feeling or the other. Well to those of you who liked it thanks for the support, and to those who disliked it sorry but I guess one can't please everyone.
Another thing that I realized recently is that I accidentally made my story canonically accurate in regards to Persephone even before the most recent Campione! book came out. My original plan was to use the mysterious Campione that slew her in a future plotline, however with the revelation that Madame Aisha slew her I suppose that plot is now closed. On the other hand I find that despite that my story is still more or less in keeping with the canon. Lucky huh?
Also I was quite surprised at how popular my last Omake was, it seems that the idea of Luo Hao taking Lancer's place was really well received. As a result I've made a bit of a couple of follow up Omake at the bottom of this chapter, just a little something that might be worth a laugh or two. I hope it proves entertaining. Please bear in mind that this is an Omake and so not to be taken seriously.
SPOILERS!
I'm pretty sure that everyone will be able to see that the main focus of this chapter is on Godou and his fight with Apollo. This is a fight that I've been planning ever since the Divine Ancestors met with Athena way back in my first chapters. I said that I intended to give Godou at least one new Authority over the course of my story, well this is the first one. I hope that the fight proves entertaining and that it's in keeping with Godou's character.
In regards to Apollo himself I found him to be a challenging god to write. In Greek mythology Apollo had some of the most eclectic collection of domains among all the gods and I found it a little difficult to translate those into combat worthy Authorities, though in the end I think I did alright. Oh, one more thing. I imagine a few people might ask how a god of prophecy didn't realize that Godou might be a bit more challenging than expected. The answer is that Apollo cannot use prophecy himself, he can only impart it upon others. This ability also can't be used as a weapon against a Campione because their magic resistance is enough to shrug it off rather than having an epileptic fit or something of the like.
I'm also sure that a fair number of people will not be too happy with what I've let Venus do to Shirou this chapter. I'd like to say that even though Campione possess powerful magic resistance it isn't invulnerable to the Authorities of a god, as such Venus's Heart Thief would work on him, though it would be reduced in effect. She was able to overcome this by using it masterfully to divert his thoughts every time he started to realize what was going on and also by using it multiple times. Also I have a plan for the plot, please bear with me because I'm hoping that the climax might be able to surpass my Shirou Vs Mordred battle.
As to Shirou's condition after the Heart Thief was finished with him; I think of it as something akin to the Rage Enhancement that Berserker Servants possessed. Basically Shirou's entire being has been overwhelmed by a single emotion, however instead of violent rage it is love directed at Venus. I'll expand on it in the chapters to come, but for the moment I hope this explanation will suffice.
Lastly I would like to make it clear that Godou HAS gained a new Authority from Apollo. I already have it planned in my mind, but if anyone would like to submit their own suggestions then feel free. I'm not so proud that if someone gives me a better idea I would dismiss it.
Once again I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to my Beta, n0mster, who has been a tremendous aid in making sure this chapter is suitable to be read.
Chapter Eighteen: Night of the Fallen
The Storm began at the same station where Venus had descended to Earth. From a certain point of view it made sense, it was a closed environment, plenty of victims and high profile enough that it would receive almost immediate attention even in the shadowy world of magic.
BANG BANG BANG!
RING RING RING!
The sound of someone both loudly hammering on the house's front door and the frantic ringing of the doorbell echoed through the Kusanagi home. Given the late hour it was a couple of minutes before a still half asleep Godou stumbled to the door and fumbled it open.
"Kusanagi-sama, please forgive this rude awakening and please don't strike me down in your wrath," the rather nervous speaker was a short man of middle years wearing an exquisitely tailored suit who was apprehensively shifting his balance from foot to foot. "I assure you I would never have dreamed of disturbing you if it hadn't been for the gravity of the emergency."
"Wha . . . ?"
Godou's brain still wasn't all fired up, and the man's speech had been made rapid by worry. Still his disturber must have taken his slurred question as some sort of sign that he wasn't going to be obliterated on the spot because he began to speak once more.
"Some time ago a Heretic God descended to Earth right here in Tokyo. Kusanagi-sama, whoever it is is showing no restraint or care in the use of their Authorities. People are falling ill for no reason, or having seizures of some sort. We don't know the identity of the god, but there is no doubt as to his power.
"Kusanagi-sama, we implore you to vanquish this god before his influence spreads out into the city. For the time being the Committee has been able to ensure that people are being kept from entering the general area of the God's arrival, but in time his influence will spread and even more people will be dragged in."
The shock of adrenaline that had flooded his system on hearing that a new Heretic God had descended cleared Godou's head more effectively than any coffee, however strong, could have hoped to. With a bitten back oath he dashed back into his room and began pulling on his clothes.
"Onii-chan . . . who's it?"
Shizuka's sleepy voice reached into his room as he saw her standing in his doorway rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
"It's just . . ." Ah, think, think, think. Who could be calling at this time of night? Who'd disturb them at this ungodly hour? Who . . . yes, that could work.
"It's just a friend of Gramps," he said as casually as he could. "A friend of his arrived in Tokyo unexpectedly and he needs a hand. Just go back to bed, I'll handle this."
Under normal circumstances his feisty sister would probably have questioned more, however right now she was still half asleep and as such was more than happy to accept any explanation that would let her get back to bed.
"Oh . . . okay."
Her eyes already starting to blink closed she turned and, rather zombie-like, shuffled back to her room.
Godou spared a glance at her now closed door as he came out of his room, with any luck he'd be able to drive the Heretic God off and return before too long. It would be awkward if his cover story started to fray due to too much time having passed.
"Have you contacted the girls yet?" He asked as he closed the front door behind him. Granted he didn't like the idea of any of them being put in harms way, but at the same time he acknowledged that they had always been the keys to his victory in the past.
"They are being contacted as we speak your highness," the small man assured him, "They're also being provided with transport to the crisis scene so they should be meeting you there."
Godou nodded once at that, then with a determined expression he stepped out of his home and made his way to the car that was waiting with its motor running.
-()-
Andromeda gazed down as the seventh King entered the waiting vehicle and allowed herself a smile.
Everything had gone as she had hoped, the boy God Slayer hadn't even realized that those who had come to him were under her control. Of course given that they were in no way intending him any harm might have had something to do with that. Campione were known for their keen sense for hostile intent, Kusanagi might not have demonstrated such a skill, but it was best not to take any chances. Indeed, her bespelled tools were meant only to be as helpful to the child of Pandora as they could be.
The objective of Apollo's rampage was to draw off Kusanagi Godou so that he would not be able to aid Emiya Shirou when Venus turned her attentions upon him. However the problem was that it seemed that the eighth Campione had some form of magic that detected the arrival of Heretic Gods. At first it had simply been a theory that the red and blue haired Divine Ancestor had come up with to explain how her target had reacted to the release of the Monkey King so swiftly. Later though she had been able to confirm it by using various rituals to divine the existence of the artefact that the adopted sister of the King had created.
As such she had to engineer a means by which to ensure that it was the seventh King, rather than the eighth, who would reach her ally first. After those two were safely locked in combat then it would provide Venus all the opportunity that she needed. Despite the warnings that the Campione had received Apollo had not yet actually made his appearance, that would take place only a minute or two before Kusanagi Godou actually arrived. Those Committee agents that were even now driving him there as their fellows contacted the female allies he had amassed were all truly convinced that the call to tell them that a Heretic God had descended had come through to them some time ago.
Excellent, things seemed to be going to plan so far, now if only the rest of the night would conform to her desires then everything would be perfect.
-()-
The sound that echoed through the entire Emiya manor would have been enough to awaken an entire herd of elephants from a drugged stupor. A ringing bell, as shrill as any banshee could have hoped to be, went off inside every room in the entire mansion. All over the place people were leaping out of their beds as the shattering noise wrenched them cruelly from the gentle embrace of sleep. Shirou was perhaps an extreme case, because he was already out of his bed and Tracing a sword in preparation for an attack before his mind finished waking all the way up.
Sleep crusted eyes blinked blearily a couple of times; then sharpened as his brain finished getting all its cylinders firing and began to make some connections. That . . . that was the alarm that Illya had rigged up that not only indicated the appearance of a Heretic God but also that whoever it was wasn't being circumspect in the use of their power. The alarm's volume was meant to be in proportion to the amount of Prana, or its divine equivalent, being used. If the current volume was anything to go by then this was a deity without any concept of discretion.
Shirou didn't pay that too much attention at the moment; instead he simply grabbed a set of clothes in his closet that he'd prepared for just this circumstance. The clothing was simple and easy to slip into, in less that a minute he'd shucked off his pyjamas and was dressed up in the blue trousers/white and blue sweatshirt that he favoured. Idly he wondered if he'd subconsciously come to think of these as his 'battle clothes', after all it was the same combo that he had worn for the Holy Grail War and had afterwards always worn when facing off against Heretic Gods.
"Shirou!"
By the looks of things Illya hadn't bothered to change because she was still clad in her pyjamas, rather adorable pink ones which clashed rather terribly with the Pikachu sleeping cap she'd recently taken to wearing to bed. His adopted younger sister stood in the door gasping for breath as though she'd just run a marathon.
"I've . . . checked . . . code . . ." she managed between gulps of air, "It's . . . at . . . train station . . . same one . . . from before . . ."
Ah, well that would explain her current state, if she'd dashed all the way to her workshop and then back here in the time since the alarm had gone off then no wonder she was short on breath. Still, what she'd said was of some concern. The train station to which she was referring was the sight of a terrorist attack some days ago; at least that was what the general population thought. Having read of how people's emotions had gone out of control and having learnt from Illya that at about the same time as the 'attack' her Mystic Code had experienced one of its 'glitches' Shirou had made a note of the location for future reference.
By the sounds of it his hunch had been right on the money. Perhaps the earlier incident had been some sort of a testing attack? A means to see what would occur when the god descended? There was simply no way of knowing at this point, but the hints he was getting suggested that there was a substantial amount of preparation involved in this incident, and that was enough to make him nervous. Archer's memories were pretty clear on that, a prepared enemy was one of the worst sort to face.
Okay, he'd have to Summon Snow, that'd be the fastest way to get there, then perhaps he'd-
"I'm coming too!"
It would seem that Illya had caught her breath once more because the declaration was delivered without any sort of hesitation or pause, only iron hard resolve.
"Illya, you know it'll be too dangerous."
Damn it, he didn't want to have to go through this again. He'd thought that after her encounter with Sun Wukong and Mordred that she'd come to understand why she couldn't join him in battle. Yes her magic was formidable and her possession of her Puppet Berserker made her the equal of any Divine Beast, but against a full fledged deity she was still outmatched.
"I'm not going to fight Shirou," She assured him, "But this fight is taking place somewhere where there are lots of people, I can help get them out of the way so that you won't have to worry about them and can concentrate on the fight."
Ah, well, that made sense. He was very glad that his only living family wasn't asking to follow him into battle. Honestly if she got hurt he really didn't know what he'd do, well apart from hurt what had hurt her of course.
"Will you promise to stay out of the action?" the eighth Campione questioned, "You promise to just stay at the edge and make sure people get out of there safely?"
In response the white haired young girl nodded solemnly, or at least as solemnly as she could in her current adorable vestments.
"Okay, you get changed into something a bit more functional and I'll make sure that Snow is ready for us."
Shirou's comment seemed to make Illya realize that she'd just burst in on him in her bed clothes, because she let out an embarrassed squeak and bolted from the room.
-()-
Apollo gazed at the mortals around him and nodded to himself in pleasure. This was good; this was what he'd intended when he'd arrived.
All about him there was chaos, to one side men and women lay on the ground unable to move as diseases of various types wracked their bodies, driving them to the ground with weakness or pain. Elsewhere other mortals moaned as they writhed upon the floor their minds assaulted by random visions of the future that seared their way across their perception. In yet another part of the building more mortals sat or lay upon the floor in stupefied fascination as they listened to music that only they could hear and that no mortal could ever hope to match.
Even though it was still night and the power had been lost to the station in the confusion the inside of the building was still as bright as though it were midday. There was no specific source of the light; it simply seemed to come from everywhere at once.
This was as it should be, the Greek god decided. This was the natural order of things, the gods stood above the mortals and the humans attended to their whims. That was the hierarchy of the world, the natural order that had always existed.
There should not be the cursed children of Pandora; there should not be the wretched God Slayers. Just the thought of those . . . those abominations was enough to make Apollo's lips curl in disgust. He remembered how he had been laid low by a mortal the last time he was on this plane, a young man barely more than a boy, that had been his undoing.
He had felt such rage, such humiliation when death had taken him. Even his return to his legend hadn't been able to quell his ire and he had spent the centuries since doing all he could to return to the world of the mortals so as to exact his revenge. In a way he'd been glad to hear that the child that had defeated him was still alive, it meant that not only did he still have a chance for vengeance but also that he hadn't been beaten by a weakling. The knowledge that his future foe would be strong only added an edge to his anticipation.
Right now though he had to deal with another of Pandora's cursed children. According to the former goddesses that he'd allied himself with this 'Kusanagi Godou' was an extremely young King that had only recently come into his power. Though he had many Authorities the information they had stolen from the local mage association indicated that they were from only two gods and there were many restrictions and limits upon many of their uses. In short he was a new King and as such fresh meat.
Apollo knew where he had gone wrong before. All those centuries ago that human had been able to defeat him because he hadn't taken the situation seriously. After all he had been a god and his 'foe' had been a young mortal that had apparently been living on the streets. How could he, a deity, have regarded something so insignificant as a threat?
Well this time he would not repeat his mistake. This time there would be no underestimating his target. This young King would serve as his warm up, his testing of his power. Once he fell and Apollo's debt to the Divine Ancestors was discharged then he would seek out his true target.
"Lord Apollo?"
The softly spoken question drew him out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand. The blonde Divine Ancestor was standing beside him her posture subservient and her expression suitably respectful.
"Yes?"
"Kusanagi Godou has just arrived outside. I thought you might like to know so as to have a suitable opportunity to decide how you wish to . . . greet him."
A cold smile slid across the handsome god's face. Oh, he had plans on how he could 'greet' this young King, so many plans.
-()-
Godou had fought gods in the past, but there was something distinctly different about this time.
When he'd come into the large train station he hadn't really known what to expect, in the past most of the gods that he'd encountered hadn't really paid the mortals around them that much attention. Both Verethragna and Melqart might have been dangerous to the humans around them, but that had simply been as a side effect of their activities. In Verethragna's case he had been looking for a good fight while Melqart had sought to sink the lands he'd once claimed back into the sea. Athena had been a danger to those about her, but only because her very presence at full power radiated darkness and death. The only real exception to the rule had been Sun Wukong, and all he'd done was change the humans about him into monkeys so that he could have subjects to rule over.
The sight that greeted him though was not something that he'd been prepared for. Everywhere he looked there were people lying about, some groaning, some clutching their bellies or heads, some just sitting there and staring vacantly into space. What struck him the most though wasn't what he was seeing, but rather what he was feeling. Even when the Monkey King had used his powers upon the helpless mortals there had been a sense of uncaring. It had felt as though he had simply cast his Authority out and let it settle upon the humans on its own. This time though there was a sense of direction, of intent. Whatever Heretic God was causing this they were doing it deliberately, they were actually choosing to hurt the mortals around them.
That had been all that had occupied his thoughts as he stumbled further into the building, his stomach knotting in revulsion as he saw more and more people afflicted by various incapacitating conditions. He'd felt an anger starting to build in himself, but it felt oddly muted, as though his attention couldn't advance beyond the present.
"Welcome, bastard child of the cursed witch."
It had been that voice that had snapped him out of reverie that he'd fallen into. The speaker was a tall man standing in the middle of the train station's main area. It was impossible for any to mistake him for a normal human, the aura that surrounded him, the atmosphere of absolute superiority that he wore like a second skin, was not something any human could possibly duplicate. Of course the archaic clothing that he wore was also a good indicator as well.
"So you're the one that's causing all this trouble?"
Even as he spoke the words Godou could feel his earlier apprehension begin to melt away like ice before the sun. It was always like this when he came face to face with a god, where before he had been worried or even afraid once he came before them it became so easy to see them as simply enemies to be fought. Erica had once told him that it was his true nature asserting itself in the face of a worthy foe, and while the young Kusanagi had thought that that sounded like something from a manga plot he had to admit that there might be some truth to it.
"Yes, I am the great god Apollo, and I have come to this land in order to vanquish you Devil King!"
Apollo, the god that Voban had defeated in order to gain his rank as a Campione? For an instant his heart leapt as he realized that this was a god that he knew, one that he had the knowledge to forge a sword for. Then that same heart sank again as he realized that he couldn't remember the knowledge that he'd used against the older Campione. That information had been imparted upon him by a spell, and in the months since then it had faded away.
Any further thought was halted as the god before took the bow that had been slung across his back in one hand and drew an arrow from his quiver with the other.
"There is no need for further talk now boy. When the cobra and the mongoose meet it can mean only that one will die, so too is it with us, when a god and a killer of gods meet the death of one or the other is the only outcome to be had."
"That is the reasoning of some stone age sav- WHOA!"
The seventh Campione's protests were cut off as he dove to the side to avoid being squewered by a golden arrow. Quite clearly Apollo wasn't too interested in hearing his opinion on the natural animosity between them. Godou didn't have time for any further thoughts though; from behind him there came a strange cracking noise. He barely had enough time to wonder what it could be before the wall that had been behind where he had just been standing collapsed into a pile of rubble.
Okay, getting hit by those arrows was a bad thing. He needed to counterattack before-
The second arrow whistled past him so close to his face that he could feel the wind of its passage on his skin. Again there was that cracking noise, but this time Godou didn't pause in confusion, instead he immediately threw himself forwards to avoid the mini-avalanche of rubble created as the wall behind him collapsed.
"Hmph, I see that you devils still don't die gracefully," commented the blond god as he drew a third arrow. "Had you been a true mortal there would have been no way that you could have avoided my shot, the cursed fate of your kind remains strong I see."
Counterattack, he needed to counterattack. Okay, which Authorities did he have available to him? The Bull, the Stallion, the Raptor, the Goat and Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, those were the ones he could use right now given the circumstances. The Stallion and the Goat weren't ones he could employ though, the Stallion would reduce the entire station to burning rubble and the Goat could seriously injure the people here who were already suffering if he were to draw on their life force. Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi was a good choice, but he wanted to keep it in reserve; the same went for the Raptor. That left the Bull given that Apollo was unquestionable a being stronger than a normal human. Well, he could work with that.
"As the one who holds all victory in my hands, I am the strongest. Man and devil, all enemies, all who harbour enmity will be vanquished. Hence I shall smash through all enemies in my way!"
As soon as the spell words were spoken he could feel the power flow through him. Strength enough that it was as though the world around him were suddenly made of nothing more than rice paper rushed across his skin and through his veins now. The only question now was; what to do with it?
His dodging had taken him away from his original position and how he was standing next to one of the small indoor cafes that were set up inside the large station. Since it was summer there were a few tables set outside the café itself so that customers could enjoy the sunshine coming down through the ceiling windows. Grabbing first one and then another of the circular tables he sent them spinning at the god.
As it turned out his actions took Apollo by surprise because he didn't move quite quickly enough to dodge the second of the projectiles and it ended up clipping him on the side. It wasn't any sort of decisive hit as it would have been for a normal human, but it jostled him enough that for a moment his bow and arrows were knocked out of alignment.
That was what Godou had been waiting for, in the brief second it took for the Greek god to bring his weapons back into the proper position the seventh Campione charged at him full tilt.
What he hadn't expected was for Apollo to recover as fast as he did. He'd thought that he'd have at least a fraction of a second longer, but in the time it had taken the young King to cover half the distance between them the god of music and prophecy had already realigned his bow and brought the arrow to face his target.
Time slowed in Godou's eyes as further adrenaline flooded his bloodstream. He could see the miniscule motions as the arrowhead moved to point straight at his head, he could watch as the cord dug into the god's fingers as he pulled the bow tight and he could see the tiny muscles on his bare arms tighten as he prepared to loose the arrow. Most of all though, he could see the small golden flames that played along the arrowhead. They were small and faint, but there was something inexplicably hungry about them.
Once again it was instinct and pure reflex that saved Godou's life. Had he been thinking it would have taken just that extra fraction of a second that would have doomed him, instead there was no thought only instinct.
The power of the bull faded and was replaced with the Raptor's speed and suddenly his body could match his perception of the world. Even as the arrow shot forwards the heir to the Kusanagi family was already out of its way and moving to the side. His thought had been to circle around his enemy and attack from the side, unfortunately that plan was neatly derailed by what happened when the arrow impacted on the wall.
The explosion wasn't actually all that large, however the shockwave that resulted from it was strong enough to shatter every bit of glass in the whole station as well as knock Godou off his feet. He was able to regain his balance quickly, but by that point another burning shaft was shooting towards him and he was forced to pour on the speed in order to both dodge and escape the blast.
This was not good, not good at all. Those blasts from the arrows might not be as huge as they could have been, but despite their small size they were intense and by the look of things several small fires had already broken out.
"It would seem that you are quick on your feet bastard of Epimetheus, perhaps I should employ some aid in running you down."
As the Heretic God spoke it was as though his shadow had taken on a life of its own growing and swelling despite its caster not moving or the light shifting. Then it bulged upwards, lifting itself off the ground in a manner so unnatural as to be horrifying. From that bulge came wolves, great black beasts that Godou was all too familiar with.
Of course Apollo would have this ability, the seventh Campione felt like hitting himself over the head for not having considered it earlier. This had been the first Authority that Voban had used against him as well as the Authority that had made him a Campione in the first place. Of course Apollo would have it given his original identity as Phoebus.
This was pretty bad, that wolf ability had been most troublesome in that it seemed able to easily create multiple Divine Beasts that were pretty much relentless in their pursuit of their prey. He wasn't sure if Voban's ability to turn into a huge wolfman himself had been a part of the original Authority or if it had been something he'd developed himself over the decades, but that had been extremely troublesome to deal with as well. The fact was that in the end he'd had to use his trump card, the Authority of the Golden Sword, to neutralize it, and that option wasn't available to him now since he didn't have the knowledge needed to properly forge the sword.
As his mind raced trying to formulate a plan the scent of smoke tickled at his nose. A quick glance about showed him that the small fires that had been started earlier were starting to grow quite quickly.
Great, that was all he needed, not only did he have to fight a god while worrying about the people caught in the general area with him, but now he also had to worry about the place catching fire.
-()-
When Shirou and Illya arrived they found that the train station had been surrounded by a number mages. The fact that they were all able to see him and his sister even though they were within the divine aura of Snow was a clear indication that they were all magic users.
"Emiya-sama!" one of them called as he ran up to the Campione as the Pegasus' hooves hit the ground. "Thank the Heavens that you've arrived."
In all truth Shirou was surprised to find that the Committee had already arrived, after all he'd had the advantage of Illya's Mystic Code as well as a Divine Beast to act as transport. The fact that they'd beaten him here was really quite impressive and gave him a good impression of the group. He supposed their somewhat delayed response during the Monkey King's escape must have been due to it taking place some distance from their 'main office' as it were.
"Have you been able to identify the god yet?" he asked as he swung off Snow.
"Yes your majesty, the God has named himself as Apollo, and is already engaged in combat with Kusanagi-sama."
"Godou's already here?"
That was even more of a surprise than the Committee beating him here. Them he could understand, but Godou . . . To the best of his knowledge the seventh Campione hadn't set up any sort of information network or warning system, so how had he managed this?
"King Emiya?"
Glancing in the direction of the voice Shirou was pleasantly surprised to see both Erica and Liliana jogging towards him. That certainly made him feel a bit more on the confident side in regards to Godou's chances for victory. His allies were his greatest advantage after his Authorities after all, and it was a fact that the seventh Campione was aware of.
"Erica-san, Liliana-san, I take it that you're here to lend aid to your King?"
"That is hardly a question that needs even to be asked your majesty," The blonde Italian mage answered with a confident smile. "Whenever Godou needs my help it will only be natural that I shall be there with him to offer all that I can."
"Indeed, it is only proper for a knight to stand at that side of her Lord." Liliana agreed, her face a picture of stoic loyalty.
"Huh, I'm beginning to feel somewhat unneccess-"
The rest of Shirou's comment was cut off as a portion of the train stations roof suddenly exploded outwards in a burst of flame. Small bits of rubble no larger than hail stones came rattling down onto the street around him.
". . . perhaps it might be a good idea if you went to aid your King before he ends up levelling the whole station." The King of Steel commented.
All truth to be told he'd rather have gone in there himself to lend aid, however there were a number of factors that kept him from doing so. The first and simplest was that it was something of an unspoken rule that Campione didn't butt in on each other's fights unless requested. It had been something that he'd picked up on during the whole Monkey King affair as well as the Feast afterwards. Secondly he didn't want to appear overbearing to Godou either in his eyes or the eyes around him. Quite frankly the last thing he wanted was to accidentally start a rumour that he was trying to establish his dominance over the young Kusanagi as the superior King. Right now their relationship was pleasantly uncomplicated and he wanted to keep it that way.
The main thing though was that he didn't want to add any more destructive power to the already volatile mix. He was well aware that a large number of Godou's Authorities could be highly destructive, and by the look of things the god he was fighting wasn't exactly picky about his own powers. If he added himself to the battle then it might get shorter, but there was a good chance the destruction would literally go through the roof. The best course of action would be to leave it in the young Kusanagi's hands and only intervene if it seemed as though Godou was in mortal danger.
As odd as it might sound he actually had a fair bit of respect for the seventh Campione. He'd personally seen Godou crush one god and he also knew that he'd been able to best Sun Wukong at least twice, once to rescue the young shrine priestess he'd swallowed and again to finish him off. Despite his rather unassuming exterior Shirou had to admit that the younger teen had masses of hidden potential, a quality the memories of Archer helped him identify.
"That would probably be for the best Emiya-sama," agreed Erica, "Our thanks for you understanding as to why we can't be more lavish in our greetings."
There was a quick bow from the two girls and then they were off towards the main entrance to the station.
"Ummm . . . your majesty?" the timid question came from a short fellow with a slight stature and thinning hair, "I was wondering if I might be so bold as to request your aid?"
"What's the problem?"
"We're trying to get the trapped civilians out of the station, but the fires that have started are making it more and more difficult. The flames are of divine origin and are resisting our efforts to extinguish them though mundane or magical means. Might we entreat you to use your power to save those caught within? I know that it is impertinent of me to ask this of-"
"Right, let's go."
Before the Committee agent could finish the speech that he'd clearly had planned Shirou was already striding past him towards the group of men and women hovering around one of the side entrances to the train station. As he drew closer he could feel the heat radiating from the building and as soon as he had the right angle to look into the passage he could see that smoke was starting to fog the air as well.
"Do we have any idea of how many people are still in there?" the King of Steel asked the young man who seemed to be in charge.
"Uh . . . our best guess is that there are still at least a hundred people in there," he replied after a short pause as he stared at Shirou with undisguised awe. "Most of the civilians were able to get out, but about two hundred were trapped in there when the Heretic God began to afflict them with various curses. We were able to get about half out before the fires started, but now we can't get in to get the rest unless we can get past the flames. Whoever the Heretic God is they must have some affinity with fire because the flames won't go out no matter what we do to them."
Alright, there were a few ways that he could handle this. His Reality Marble contained a number of Noble Phantasms with anti-flame properties that might work. Alternately he could try to use Curses without End to curse the flames out of existence. Or . . .
A thought occurred to him, the notion that this was an excellent opportunity to both strengthen his position with the Committee as well as try out one of his newer Authorities out on a large scale for the first time.
"I have a way to get you in past the fires," he said, "However if it's to work then you're going to have to acknowledge my . . . authority over you. This particular Authority will only work on those subordinate to me, can I ask you all for your fealty for this crisis?"
There was some hesitation from the group, but then the young man that he'd been talking to nodded to himself and got down on one knee like a western knight before his king.
"If it will let us help I will gladly acknowledge you as my Lord King Emiya."
In ones and twos but with increasing speed the rest of the group followed his example and adopted the same pose. Shirou suddenly found himself feeling very self conscious at this level of solemnity and tried to mask his uncertainty. Oh well, he'd rolled these dice, time to see how the pips came up.
"I thank you all for your courage and your trust, now let's get to work." Taking a deep breath he Traced a Noble Phantasm, a sword wielded by a nameless hero during the Crusades, focused his will and spoke the sacred spell words.
"To clothe my soldiers I take my steel and hammer it upon the anvil of war. Steel to guard, steel to mark and steel to strengthen, this is the steel of my blessings, this is the steel for my legions, that none may stand in their way."
The effect was almost immediate, the sword that he held dissolved into nothingness as upon each of the figures kneeling before him plates of armour began to manifest. On each individual the design was different, on some the armour was lighter, on others it was thicker. On some it was plain while upon others it was ornate. The only thing that remained common to them all was that every armoured form was the same shade of metallic blood red. As such despite their wide variety in styles and appearance there was also a sort of eerie uniformity to the steel clad ranks before him.
"Shirou?"
At Illya's question the eighth Campione turned to face her, then did a double take as he stared at her. His adopted sister was clad in her own set of armour, but unlike the others rather than being blood red it was a mixture of pale blues and lavenders. When combined with her long white hair it seemed to only further enhance her image of being some sort of snow fairy as he had thought on that day when he'd played with her in the park. Clearly his Authority had felt that she was under his reign as well, but had not equipped her as a regular soldier.
He could feel the link between himself and the armours he had created, and he could feel a certain extra definition in the bond with Illya's. Quite clearly his Authority had sensed his greater concern and regard for his adopted sister and had reacted accordingly by granting her an extra strong suit of armour.
It was odd to think of his powers as alive, but he did have a definite sense of them each having their own character. Steel for the Legion was an interesting one in that while the others were like a single animal this Authority felt different. If he had to put it into words he'd have to say that rather than being one animal Steel for the Legion was more like an entire colony of steel ants. There was a sense to it of relentless purpose and rigid order, yet at the same time it was alive and bursting with a sort of frantic energy. The colony seemed to respond to his will rather than being hostile, but at the same time there was also the sense that it was also oddly independent in a way that none of his other Authorities were.
But that made sense when one thought about it. This Authority was the first one that was meant to work for others rather than for him. Even the monsters born from Curses without End were in some way a part of him, but these suits of protection weren't like that. They were made by his power and linked to him, yes, but at the same time they unquestionably separated from him.
"Your majesty . . . this is beyond anything I could have imagined."
The shaky voice of the young leader of the group that he just clad in armour brought Shirou out of his thoughts and back to the matter at hand.
"The armours are designed to enhance your personal abilities as well as give you protection. With any luck this should be enough to guard you from the flames and the smoke and let us evacuate the remaining civilians.
"Understood sir," the young man declared as he practically stood to military attention along with the rest of the group. "We shall begin the operation immediately."
Then without any hesitation the newly armoured mage turned and charged into the flames that were now beginning to choke side entrance. The rest of his group followed after him, their pace oddly measured, as though they were used to operating in unison. Perhaps it was some side effect of the armour, some natural enhancement of their ability to co-operate?
"Onii-chan, what should I do?"
Once more a question brought him out of his thoughts, but this time the question came from Illya. Glancing down at her he noted that there was a certain determination in her eyes to aid, yet there was also a sort of discipline there that he hadn't seen before. Could it be that the armour she wore was also affecting her? That should have been impossible given her level of natural magic resistance, but on the other hand this was the Authority of a God. It couldn't be classed in the same way that normal magic could.
He could investigate that later, right now it seemed to at least make Illya a little more prepared to accept his directions. He might have to debate the morality of taking advantage of this later, but for right now at least it meant that he might be able to keep her out of danger.
Quickly circling around the building he found a spot where there were no exits and, if he was right from what he was getting using Structural Grasping, no major support beam or the like.
"Right here," he said, "If more than ten minutes pass without word from me then use Berserker to-"
He was suddenly cut off by a veritable explosion of plastic shards as the one remaining window in the station burst outwards as two figures slammed through it like a pair of hypersonic cannonballs.
"I think that means that the Heretic God's no longer in there Shirou." Illya commented.
"I . . . guess you're right." The eighth Campione agreed as he lost sight of the rogue deity and his fellow King.
There was a sudden crash from within the station as part of the roof fell in. Cries of alarm also sounded out from inside as well as audible curses from the mages that had already gone in.
"KING EMIYA! WE NEED YOUR AID!"
The shouted plea was loud enough to be heard despite the growing sounds of chaos that were building.
"Looks like we'll have to help here." His adopted sister commented as she began heading back to the same side entrance that the earlier rescuers had used.
For a brief moment Shirou considered asking her to stay outside, but the idea was quickly dismissed. The god was no longer there and with her magic and her Berserker puppet Illya would be a potent asset to any kind of rescue effort. As would he, now that he thought about it. Godou was experienced in handling Heretic Deities; surely he could handle himself until Shirou had finished the rescue of the civilians, right?
-()-
Well, things were going about as well as could be expected. Admittedly that wasn't very well by most stretches of the imagination, but all things considered it could be worse.
Behind him Godou heard one of the dark wolves yelp in pain as either Erica or Liliana dealt with it. He'd been really glad when they'd arrived; their aid had meant that he'd been able to stick with the Raptor rather than having to switch Authorities again.
Things had been getting a bit desperate before they'd shown up; between his wolves and his archery the Greek god had been slowly but surely drawing a tight net upon his foe. For his part the young Kusanagi had been wondering at what point the negative side effects of the speed Authority would kick in. Given the situation he was in the instant that the chest pains struck might well spell his doom.
Fortunately for him though it seemed that time had allowed him to gain at least some endurance in that regard because so far the pains had not yet struck. Even so he was still in a losing position; his speed was letting him hold out for the time being, but ultimately unless the situation changed things were looking pretty bleak.
It had been at that point that his two sworn knights had shown up, Erica using her iron alchemy to multiply her sword and impale a great number of the wolves while Liliana had shifted her own weapon into its bow form and released a trio of arrows at Apollo himself.
Each of the mortal girls' attack were little more than annoyances to the deity of the bow, but the two mortals were both two of the finest knights in the world despite their youth, and what they had they used to the best advantage possible. Yes, the wolves that the blonde mage slew were easily replaced, and yes, the arrows only managed to make Apollo stumble back a single step as they impacted and exploded. That was alright, because it was all that was needed to aid their sworn King.
Godou hadn't needed to know what they were doing, he'd simply trusted that the two girls that were precious to him knew what they were doing and had charged straight at his target. The wolves that were in his path died and a path was cleared for him. The deity that could have impaled him with an arrow was distracted for that vital instant and wasn't able to react in time.
The Raptor was still one of the hardest Authorities for the seventh Devil King to use. Granted he'd made strides in being able to use it while facing Luo Hao and the Monkey King, but even so he was still a long way from having mastered it. Ideally he'd have liked to be able to pummel the arrogant god before him at maximum speed, but he lacked the control needed to do so and would probably end up simply missing him altogether. So instead he'd tried a totally different approach.
Spreading his arms wide Godou hadn't tried to punch or kick the Olympian god, but had instead ploughed straight into him like an American footballer slamming into an unprepared target. Distracted and blinded Apollo hadn't had any chance to prepare or set himself and was only able to let out a startled exclamation of shock as his foe actually picked him up and continued to run at god-like speed right out of the station and straight through the last surviving window.
Godou gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip around the god's waist and tried to push himself to go even faster. It wasn't hard to lift Apollo, as he'd noticed before any object or person that he could hold in his hands was affected by the power of the Authority to become light as a feather, but he knew that time was of the essence. It would only be an instant or two before the Greek God shook of his shock and began to struggle. Once that happened the young Kusanagi had no illusions as to whether or not he'd be able to hang on to him. With that in mind it was essential that he managed to reach is target before-
There it was, the thought ran through his head even as one of Apollo's elbow came down to strike him viciously in the back. The blow was sharp enough to make him miss his next step and the pair of them went sprawling into the dirt, both tumbling from the speed at which they'd been moving. Still, even as he pulled himself out of the dirt Godou allowed himself a small smile of triumph.
He'd seen this park from the car on his way to the site of the Heretic God's descent and had mentally kept a track of its general direction. After all he'd wanted a place that could serve as a decent battle ground if it turned out that he had to relocate the battle. Here he wouldn't have to worry about bystanders being caught in the crossfire because at this time of night the park was closed.
"You . . ."
Oh, right, now wasn't the time to get lost in one's thoughts, he still had a rogue deity to worry about. And by the sounds of it Apollo was not at all happy with what had just happened.
"How dare you?! How dare you treat me in such a manner?! You . . . you bastard son of a traitorous witch, I'll have your head on a plate for this!"
The black haired teen was barely able to get out of the way in time to avoid being skewered by the trio of golden arrows that came flying at him at speeds that would make most bullets envious. As he did so the shadows around the god's feet seethed once again and dark wolves began to spring forth once more.
"First I'm going to pin you to the ground by shooting you through your hands and feet. Then I'm going to have my pets chew your limbs off. Then I'm going to burn . . ."
As the Greek god continued to declare the various tortures that he was going to inflict upon his foe Godou simply stopped paying any attention to what he was saying. He knew he couldn't afford to stay in his current Authority for much longer. He'd been lucky to have avoided its side effects so far, but every passing second increased the chances of the chest pains leaving him incapacitated and helpless.
Fortunately Godou had a plan. The layout of the park was arranged around a central point, and that point was occupied by a large bandstand building with three floors. And it was a structure large enough to open another option for him.
It wasn't hard to get into position, with the speed of the Raptor still available to him and with the wide room of the park it was easy for him to circle around until the Heretic God was directly between him and the large bandstand. Inside himself he felt his Authority shift as he released the power of speed and grasped the strength of destruction.
"May his spine be crushed; may his bones be broken, his tendons torn, his hair ripped from his skull; may his blood, spilled over the earth, be churned into a bloody froth. I shall become one who buries fangs into the sinner's flesh, that the will of the Lord be followed: Thou shalt be purged!"
At the first word the Authority of the Boar responded to his call. As the young God Slayer continued to speak the enormous Divine Beast manifested itself around him so that he was standing between its front legs with its massive head above him and its eyes glaring at the god before it. As the last words were spoken several things all happened at once. The boar let out an ear shattering roar and charged forwards. The boiling tide of wolves that had been surrounding Apollo let out an answering howl and leapt forwards in their own dash to meet their foe. Simultaneously Godou felt the pain from the Raptor Authority finally catch up with him as it drove him to his knees. Lastly the Greek god he was facing didn't panic at the appearance of the huge beast; instead he simply drew another arrow and notched it to his bow. The seventh Campione couldn't help but note through his pain that the arrow's head was black rather than golden.
The Boar and the wolves met and the result was an instant slaughter. The wolves might have been Divine Beasts, but they were unquestionably of lower level than the boar. Despite their ferocious attempts to bite at its flesh and to rend its muscles to hamstring it their fangs couldn't penetrate the huge beast's hide and the pack of vicious divine creatures was quickly annihilated as the boar trampled them.
However despite the destruction of his servant beasts Apollo remained unruffled and simply aimed his bow at the oncoming juggernaut. The contrast between the two was almost ludicrous in its extremity, on the one had was the god who seemed, at that moment, all too humanlike, and on the other hand was the massive bulk of the Boar, a beast larger than a bus bearing down on him like some sort of living avalanche.
"I heal what has broken, I treat what is cut. In the name of my son Asclepius and in my own names of Paion, Epikourios, Oulios and Loimios I call upon the powers of the healer to break the taboo and aid against the foe that stands before me."
As he spoke the spell words Godou could see a sort of pale mist flowed up along the length of the shaft to curl around the head in a sort to misty embrace. When the last word was spoken he released the arrow and let it shoot directly at the charging Boar.
In the past the young Kusanagi had seen his great beast hurt or even defeated. Melqart had beaten the Boar severely and Luo Hao had been the first to succeed in utterly crushing the beast. Yet despite that there had always been a sense of power to the divine animal, a feeling that even if it had been beaten it hadn't been defeated. That sense of unwavering rage was shattered as the arrow struck home.
The noise that the boar made as it stumbled and crashed to the ground and dug a trench in the earth couldn't be called anything other than a scream. It was not a roar or a bellow or even a groan. This was a frantic outcry of sheer pain that Godou hadn't even been aware his summoned beast was even capable of producing. The fallen form of the Boar twitched and thrashed as great rents appeared in its hide and sickening cracks could be heard as its bones snapped like old twigs.
"It is a formidable beast, but I was a poor choice of a foe to use it upon."
The calm voice of Apollo drew the older of the Kusanagi siblings out of his thoughts as the god calmly came around the spasming form of the downed Boar. His bow was drawn and the golden head of an arrow was pointed unwaveringly at Godou's chest. The young King was still down on one knee with one hand clutched at his chest where the pain that the Raptor Authority had inflicted upon him persisted even as it began to dull. Right now he couldn't do too much even if he did switch to another Authority, his best bet was to see if he could buy himself a little time to recover a bit more.
Wha-what did you do to my Boar?" he gasped out taking care to slightly exaggerate his breathlessness.
"Your beast is a powerful creature," Apollo answered, a certain smugness tingling his voice and posture as he drew closer, "It was clearly the servant of a powerful god before you usurped it. However it is no match for my Taboo Authority."
"What . . . did you . . . do?" Godou asked again as he tried to buy those precious seconds that he needed.
"How many times has your beast been wounded in the battles he has fought at your will? And before that, what pains has he undergone in the service of whichever god you took him from? In his existence how many wounds and injuries has he endured and healed?
"I am god to many things, but among my Authorities is the power of healing as well as the power to blight with infirmities. By uniting those two powers into a taboo combination I can undo all the healing that the beast has ever undergone. He is being revisited by the pains and wounds that he has undergone over all his millennia of battles."
That . . . that was a chillingly horrendous power. The first of the Japanese Kings thought of all the injuries he'd endured since becoming a God Slayer and shuddered at the thought of them being all inflicted upon him at once. After something like that there might not be quite enough of him left for his Ram Authority to revive, small wonder that the Boar had fallen.
"Die now accursed child of Pandora." Apollo declared as he aimed his bow at the still immobilized Campione and released the arrow to fly deadly and true.
-()-
"Please . . . please help me . . ."
The weak voice surprised Shirou because he had been certain that the area from which it came had already been checked over and cleared by his armoured helpers. Had they missed someone?
For the most part the rescue operation had been going well, though dangerous and almost impossible to extinguish the flames that Apollo had set were not spreading as fast as had been feared. Once through the barrier that the fires had made the task of rescuing those trapped within the unstable building had become easier. A wall had been smashed out by Illya's false Servant to provide an unobstructed exit through which the civilians could be evacuated.
The main problem was that even though the train station was coming down around them most of the trapped civilians were either unable or unwilling to move. Those that were ill simply lacked the strength to do so, those struck by prophetic visions were too irrational to fully understand the situation and those entranced by divine music were simply utterly unresponsive, blind to all save the sound that filled their minds.
As such the main part of the task of saving these poor victims was to physically carry them out of the doomed building. Though such a task would normally have been difficult the Armour that Shirou had provided was proving to be boons to their efforts since even the weakest one was able to double the strength to the one wearing it. That meant that the actual moving wasn't too much of a problem, the problem lay in the fact that the rescuers were substantially outnumbered by those that needed rescuing. This complication was further compounded by the fact that they were scattered about the shops and passages of the station and that the station itself was beginning to collapse. As such it was more of a chore to simply find the innocent than it was to actually rescue them.
"P . . . please."
The voice was coming from where an advertisement board had fallen off the wall. Maybe that's what had happened, the mages had missed whoever was under it because they were completely covered. With a shrug of his shoulders the King of Steel reached down and seized the sides of the board.
It might have been too heavy for a normal human to move on their own, but as far as Shirou was concerned all he needed was to perform the self reinforcement that came almost instinctually these days. There wasn't even a need to activate one of his Authorities, not under these circumstances. Setting his feet just the right distance apart to provide optimal balance he heaved upwards with his increased strength even as he was careful not to let any of the board's weight settle upon the one trapped beneath it.
The board came off and he saw the one that had been hidden from view. It was a young woman in her late teens or very early twenties and who was clad in a simple brown skirt and white blouse. Her hair was a chestnut brown that managed to be lustrous despite the dust that had settled upon it. Her eyes were blue and framed by a face that was-
Sting.
-beautiful to look upon.
Shirou frowned ever so slightly as he reached down to help her up. What had that been? It was as though he'd felt a sudden sharp pain which had then faded so quickly it left him wondering if he'd only imagined it. Maybe it had just been some spark or something of that nature that had landed on him and then burnt itself out against his supernaturally resilient flesh.
"Th-Thank you, I thought I was going to die under there."
Turning his attention back to the young woman the young King carefully looked her over. She didn't seem to be injured, a bit unsteady on her feet perhaps but there didn't seem to be any signs of blood or broken bones. Her voice sounded tenuous and-
Sting.
-as pure and clear as some golden bell, so perfectly harmonious despite its weakness.
Shirou shook his head at that. Honestly he couldn't let such thoughts cloud his mind at the moment, there was too much to be done. As soon as the girl was on her feet more steadily he turned from her and gestured in the direction of the wall that had been knocked out by Illya's efforts.
"Just go over that way and you'll find some people that can show you the way out. I've got to go see if anyone else is trapped further down."
He didn't know how she'd been able to escape the woes that had left all the others unable to move, but he was just glad that this lovely young woman was able to walk on her own. That meant that she could see herself out while he went in search of others that needed his help.
His thoughts were cut off though when the woman he'd just saved leapt forwards and embraced his left arm tightly. As she tightened her grip Shirou became almost uncomfortably aware of the feeling of her breasts pressing into his side as she leaned against him.
"Please . . . please don't leave me alone. I-I was so frightened . . . I thought no-one would come and that I'd be left all alone to die here. Please, please let me come with you. I-I promise I won't get in the way."
The adopted Emiya tried to hide his frown as he sought for a way to change her mind. He could understand how she felt, but he couldn't allow her to come with him further into the mess that the station was becoming. It was too dangerous, not to mention that if things went wrong she could easily panic and become a serious liability. No, the sensible thing to do was to convince her to follow his advice and leave the station so he could-
Sting.
-on the other hand he didn't want her to become distraught. Maybe it would be a good idea to let her come with him. She seemed to be fairly sensible for the most part, so as long as she followed his instructions it should be okay.
"Alright," he agreed, feeling his thoughts scatter slightly as the girl turned an absolutely radiant smile upon him, "But be sure to follow my instructions if anything goes wrong. I'm in charge here, do you understand?"
As she gave him a solemn nod he allowed himself a slight smile.
"Well since we'll be working together why don't you tell me your name?" he asked as he began to make his way deeper into the station that was becoming increasingly smoke filled.
"Oh, I'm Venus."
That brought a frown to Shirou's face as he paused in mid-step. Venus? That was the name of a goddess. To find someone with such a name under these circumstance s was altogether too susp-
Sting.
-what did it matter what she was called. Indeed the name of Venus suited her given how beautiful she was.
Wait, what had he been thinking about?
And why were there so many of those blasted sparks landing on him?
-()-
Godou saw the arrow leave the bow with a clarity that made it seem to be moving in slow motion. He knew that he couldn't move right now, the pains from the Raptor were subsiding but they hadn't yet faded enough for him to have freedom of motion once more.
Apollo had him at his mercy.
It was a rather shocking conclusion to come to, but it was the simple truth. As things stood there was no way that he could get out of the way of that deadly shaft. He supposed that if he activated the Ram right before the arrow struck then he might be able to resurrect himself, but afterwards he'd be totally helpless and his foe had been pretty graphic in his descriptions of what he intended to do to his foe's corpse.
What he needed was a miracle, what he needed was-
"Kusanagi Godou!"
The single shouted name sounded only an instant before the arrow struck, but that tiny splinter of a second was enough. In response to his will and the opportunity that had just manifested the Ten Incarnations of the Persian Warlord changed automatically. The Boar was discarded and the Gale took its place.
In the blink of an eye he was no longer kneeling where he had been he was . . . falling out of a tree?
It didn't take him more than a second to realize the situation, by the looks of things he was at the outskirts of the park but still within line of sight of where he had previously been. Indeed he could see the bulk of the downed Boar starting to fade from where he was. And where he was seemed to be falling out of one of the large trees that lined the outer edge of the park, and he wasn't falling alone.
Just off to his side was Erica, and she was apparently heading straight at the ground head first. Without even stopping to consider the strangeness of the situation Godou reached out, pulled her into a protective embrace and did his best to turn so that he'd take the brunt of the impact.
He hit the ground with a soft thud and an impact that was strong enough to knock a bit of the wind out of his lungs but not much else. It looked that even a fall from such a tall tree wasn't enough to do him any harm.
"Ah, good to see you made it Godou." The blonde mage knight's voice was quite self satisfied and not a little on the warm side. It made the young Campione suddenly very aware that he was tightly holding her voluptuous form to him. Quickly disengaging he stood up, noting as he did so that the pain of the Raptor Authority seemed to have now faded completely.
"Thanks for that, if you hadn't called me I'd have been finished for sure."
"It's only to be expected for a Knight to aid her beloved King." She declared with a proud toss of her head as she stood up beside him.
"How'd you get it to work though? I thought you could only call me with the Gale if you were in danger?"
"I was in danger." Her answer was as matter of fact as if she'd been discussing what kind of pen she preferred to use.
"But . . . I've seen you jump from buildings, how could that little fall be a danger?"
"Oh I simply deactivated all my passive defensive spells before I jumped off. If you hadn't caught me I'd definitely have broken my neck. Still, it was the best way I could think of to help you."
Godou could only gape at her as his mind tried to process what she'd just said. Just like that? She'd willingly thrown herself to what could well have been her death thinking only of how it could aid him. Once again the young God Slayer found himself wondering how on earth he'd managed to earn such love and loyalty from such an incredible girl.
There was no time for further thoughts or discussion though. A roar of anger echoed across the park as the Heretic God once more found his target.
Another black headed arrow was flying at them its point wreathed in colourless mist, but with the space that separated them Godou had that extra bit of time that he needed to react.
"Ama no Murakumo!"
At his declaration the divine sword that rested within his right arm manifested itself into the mortal world. Its master was not a blade master like some of his fellow Campione, but he was at least partially familiar with how to use the weapon, and he was also aided by the natural instincts that made the Devil Kings such overwhelming existences. As such even though there was little skill behind it his sword stroke was able to strike the incoming arrow and shatter it into hundreds of glowing and fading particles.
As he did so he could feel the sword in his hand absorb the unhealing energies that had bee endowed upon the arrow. That was Ama no Murakumo's strength, the power to absorb divine energies that were directed against either itself or its master and make them it's own.
And right now that was what he wanted.
The arrow was followed by a veritable tide of wolves, a seething rush of furred bodies that seemed intent upon overwhelming him through sheer weight of numbers.
"We stand ready to aid you Godou."
The voice came from his other side and a quick glance confirmed that Liliana was there, her sword held ready as she glared at the oncoming divine wolves.
"Of course, to be at your side is our place after all."
Erica agreed as she stepped up to stand on his other side.
In his mind a decision slid into place, like a metal lynchpin sliding into place. Like Hell he was going to let those wolves even come close enough to these girl, not when they were so ready to stand beside him and be his strength. He'd destroy them first, he'd-
Within him he felt the curious sensation that told him that the conditions for the use of one of his Authorities had been met. The power of the Goat was his, the power to command lightning along with priestly wisdom and authority. It was a powerful Authority, but one that could harm his own allies if used carelessly. The Goat drew upon not only his Mana, but also upon those of his subjects, if he overused its power he might well drain those that served him to their deaths.
The problem was that right now he only had two subjects that could aid him. Granted the two Italian mage knights were powerful young women in their own rights and could supply him with considerable power, but even they could only power a Divine Authority for so long before they began to suffer from it.
He needed something else, something more to-
The idea hit him like a thunderbolt. Granted he'd never tried it before, but he was sure that he could pull it off.
"Eric, Liliana, will you lend me your power?"
There was no need for either of the two girls to say a word; both just nodded their heads expressions of equal resolve on both their faces.
"One who supports the heavens and then spreads throughout earth! Those who bestow grace and victory. Show me the right way, for I am noble!"
As the spell words left his lips he could feel the Authority reaching out and connecting to the girls that stood on either side of him, he could feel as it began to drain their power and funnel it to him. For now the drain was manageable to them, but before long it would grow too great, he had to complete the plan before it reached that stage.
Holding the divine sword in his hand out he directed the lightning that now raced through his body awaiting release into it. Ama no Murakumo drank the lightning in without any hesitation, just as he knew it would. Now it was this next part that would be tricky, he already knew that by combining the Steel of the sword and the lightning of the Goat he could create a magnetic force, however that wasn't what he was aiming for now.
"It was here at this place, that Susanoo led a thousand unruly deities in rebellion. A thousand swords standing upon the earth, used as city walls to defend against the enemies."
Speaking the spell words of the sword of Susanoo increased the power of Ama no Murakumo as well, he could feel it taking more of his Mana even as it continued to drink in the electricity being poured into it by the Goat Authority. The two forces met within the blade, and as they did so they began to feed each other. Even as the wolves drew closer Godou let a thin smile of triumph flicker across his lips even as his face set into a grimace of concentration.
The sword that he held now seemed to be almost vibrating in his hand; the power stored within it was practically straining to escape. Well, that was fine; he wanted to let it free after all. With a wordless shout of effort and defiance the seventh Campione brought the blade down in a chopping swing even a he released the restraints that were holding the power within the sword in check.
The results were suitably spectacular; a veritable wall of lightning erupted from the blade and seared its way across the small distance separating him from the oncoming pack. Where that crackling sheet of golden lightning passed the ground was left a torn and scotched ruin. As for the wolves . . . well, when the wall of thunderbolts struck them the divine beasts to all intents and purposes simply ceased to exist, nothing was left of them except fine black ash that itself faded from existence after only a second or two.
That had been what he'd been aiming for, but he hadn't been able to do it with only the Authority he'd gained from Verethragna, not without risking hurting or even killing his allies. However Ama no Murakumo was the weapon of Susanoo, the weapon of the god of storms. While it might not be its own main skill it did possess powers related to weather, and those powers had served like a lens to increase the power of the lightning fed into it. Not only that, since his sword had absorbed the anti-healing property of the arrow that had been mixed into the attack as well, and if its effects upon the Boar were anything to go by then there was a good chance that he wouldn't have to worry about the wolves any more in this battle.
"W-Well done Godou . . ." Erica gasped out from where she stood. She was leaning forwards and bracing herself with her hands on her knees as she panted. She seemed okay, apart from looking like she'd just been forced to run a marathon of course.
"I-Indeed, though I fear I may not be of much aid for the rest of this battle." Liliana commented leaning on her sword and being in more or less the same state as her childhood friend/rival.
"YOU! YOU SLEW MY WOLVES!"
The voice that thundered across the park simply couldn't be called human, it was simply too huge, too loud to anything a mortal could produce. It was filled with rage and seemed to make the very trees around them tremble and wilt with fear.
"Not over yet." He commented as he tightened his grip on Ama no Murakumo.
-()-
Sting.
There it was again. Shirou glanced around but still couldn't spot what it was that kept on causing him those brief flashes of pain.
"Perhaps over there?"
At the sound of that enchanting voice he found his eyes once more drawn towards the young woman that was following him. honestly he knew that he shouldn't have allowed her to come with him, but the thought of her getting hurt if she was out of his sight pricked at his heart. After all if she was with him then he could better protect her, right? If the worst came to worst she'd also be close by so that he could get her out that much faster.
That thought made him pause. Why was he making up such a weak reason to keep her around? That wasn't like him at all, granted she was a truly beautiful woman and she did seem to be determined to stay near him, but-
Sting!
-but he shouldn't be questioning his good fortune like this. If such a lovely person wanted to stay with him then he shouldn't be making a fuss over it. Shaking his head he turned back in the direction Venus had indicated. The smoke in the air might be a bit thicker now but he could still clearly see a collapsed form leaning against the wall, a salary man by the look of it. Reaching down he slung the man over his shoulder and turned to that Venus for suggesting coming this way.
Sting!
Damn, but her name was apt. Even though Rider had been a beauty of supernatural level he couldn't help but compare her to the chestnut haired woman before him and think that there may well have been a bit of a contest as to which of them was the fairer.
Bah, this was ridiculous. Why were his thoughts getting so distracted since he came in here? Was there some sort of left over Authority that was causing his mind to wander? Could it be a side effect of the flames that continued to stubbornly burn despite the mage's efforts to extinguish them? For that matter why was he getting so struck by Venus's appearance? Granted she was beautiful and clearly quite brave since she'd followed him into the unsteady portions of the station despite his attempts to dissuade her, but even so . . .
Why was it that he felt as though he were somehow cheating on Sakura?
That hit him like a bucket of cold water. Sakura, his lover and the girl he'd chosen over everything, why did it feel as though she had somehow slipped from his mind? Even as he jogged over to where all the civilians were being evacuated he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. What was going on?
Depositing the unconscious victim in the arms of one of the armoured mages that were carrying the incapacitated innocents out he turned to head back into the crumbling building. As he did so he noticed that Venus's lovely features were marred by an expression of . . . distaste? Of chagrin? He couldn't quite place it.
Maybe it would be best if she stayed here, he was going to be heading into the least stable part of the station now. It was so suspect that he'd be activating Dragon Slaying Hero before he went in so if the place collapsed on him he'd have an easy enough time getting himself out. The beautiful young woman wouldn't have any such ability though, if she was caught up in such a collapse it might well be the end of her. Making her stay here would probably be the smartest thing to-
Sting.
"Let's go Shirou, I think I know where some others might be caught."
Her voice was like honey to his ears. Yes, if she knew where some other people might be then surely that was a good enough reason to take her with him, right?
Hang on a second, had he ever told her his name? How did she know he was called Sh-
Sting.
That wasn't important right now. They had to go save more civilians together.
As he turned away he didn't see the frown fade from Venus's face to be replaced with a smile.
-()-
The first thing that Godou did was make a dash to put some room between him and the two Italian mage knights. As it turned out that was a pretty smart move because almost immediately the arrows came flying at him, if he hadn't moved then the girls would have been caught in the blasts that emerged as the shafts he avoided struck the ground behind him and exploded. The only good thing was that it seemed that Apollo had lost his composure and succumbed to rage because he was sacrificing his accuracy in favour of firing as many arrows as fast as he could. Had the shafts had their earlier accuracy then the seventh Campione was pretty sure that he'd have been a pin cushion by now. As it stood he was somehow managing to avoid a direct hit for the most part and had managed to cut the arrows he couldn't dodge with his sword.
The problem was that all those close explosions were doing some damage even if they didn't hit him. Already he could feel the bruises and burns starting to mount up, sure he might have the superhuman endurance of a God Slayer, but eventually that wouldn't be enough. If things kept up then sooner or later his building list of minor injuries would slow him down just enough to let one of those arrows strike him, and after that . . . well, that wasn't what he intended to happen.
But that was okay, he had a plan. Well, more like an idea really, but it was close enough to a plan to work for him. The problem was that he needed just a split second without interruptions to get it going, and that was time that Apollo didn't seem too eager to let him have.
All he needed was a couple of seconds, that was all. If he could just break Apollo's rhythm . . .
Okay, he still had the Goat Authority, he was just unwilling to tap the girls to use its full power, but . . . but maybe he didn't need the full power. Reaching into himself he drew upon the Authority that governed lightning making sure as he did so that he didn't draw upon the channels that existed between him and his knights, instead he drew on his own reserves of power.
It wasn't a pleasant experience; the greatest strength of the Goat lay in its ability to gather the strength of one's subjects to add to that of their King. It hadn't been intended to be used in this manner and doing so made Godou feel as though someone was running a harsh electrical current through his blood vessels.
Still despite the discomfort he managed to form a sphere of crackling lightning in his hand. It wasn't anything compared to the normal bolts and globes that he'd formed in the past, however the tennis ball sized orb of power would be just enough to serve for what he had in mind.
As he dodged once more to avoid being impacted by the latest of the Greek god's arrows he wound up and threw the small ball of energy straight at his foe's face. In a way it had felt oddly as though he was back on the sports field and playing baseball again, maybe that was why even as the crackling orb left his hand he knew that it would strike its target.
The ball of lightning was in no way the equal of the wall of thunderbolts he'd used earlier; indeed it was so weak it probably wouldn't have provided more than a painful jolt to anything larger than the average housecat. However that was fine, because it wasn't meant to hurt anyone. Instead as it impacted the archer god's face all it did was blind him for a brief instant as the lightning flashed out of existence, and of course deliver a small shock. It was a small thing, more in the nature of a distraction than an attack, but it served the needed purpose.
As soon as the rain of arrows ceased the seventh Campione immediately stopped running and turned to face the god that had been targeting him.
"For victory, hasten forth before me! O Immortal Sun, I beseech thee to grant radiance to the stallion. O Stallion that moveth godlike with wondrous grace, bringest forth the halo of thy master!"
The spell words once more came to him without effort as he again switched Authorities. The White Stallion was arguably one of his most powerful Authorities and certainly his most destructive. The Boar might be able to smash castles and buildings, the Goat might be able to call down huge lightning strikes, but the White Stallion could utterly raze those entire castles from existence and leave nothing but a smoking crater behind. In a way Godou was glad for the condition that had been placed upon its use, the thought of being able to casually command such utterly destructive power was more than a bit unnerving.
In response to his words the night was suddenly illuminated as a new sun came into being above the park. The clouds parted a something burst forth from that celestial sphere, a horse composed of burning sun fire charged down straight at Apollo uttering a thundering cry of defiance.
The sound of the collision between the two was titanic; it was also accompanied by the eruption of a dome of fire huge enough to fit a large house into.
"Damn," the seventh Campione muttered to himself, "That's the second park I've totalled."
Then another sound began to echo through the park, a noise that somehow managed to rise above the roar of the fiery dome.
It was the sound of laughter.
Before Godou's horrified eyes the conflagration began to shrink in upon itself, condensing until it revealed the unharmed form of Apollo.
The Heretic God was no longer standing upon the ground though. Instead he now stood within the frame of a magnificent chariot made from some golden metal that seemed to shine with an internal light. In front of the vehicle were lashed three horses. The two on either side of the middle one were majestic creatures with coats as golden as the chariot and hooves that sparkled like polished steel or silver. However it was the horse in the middle of the three that most shocked the first Japanese King.
It was the same white stallion of sun fire that he had unleashed upon his foe only a few seconds ago, yet now it was yoked to the reins of the chariot that Apollo stood in and waiting as docile as the others there with it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could he have been so idiotic? Of course the White Stallion wouldn't be effective against Apollo, it hadn't been against Voban, so why should it be any more effective against the source of his Wolf Authority?
"I thank you for your gift," the Greek God called across the distance that separated them, his voice mocking, "This is truly a fine horse that you've provided to me. In gratitude I think I shall simply incinerate your corpse rather than leaving its dismembered parts hanging from one of these trees."
This was bad; the tide of battle had now definitely swung back into the Heretic God's favour.
-()-
"Perhaps we should-"
Sting.
Wait, what had he been saying?
Shirou shook his head to try to clear it as he pulled Venus closer to him. The ceiling in front of them had just collapsed a second ago and the frightened beauty had leapt to his side in fear.
It was ridiculous in the situation, but the young red head couldn't help but feel a great deal of pleasure at the feel of her in his arms, her body pressed against his. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to get to know this woman a bit better once this was all over. There was a good chance that she'd be very grateful to him for saving her and since he was in another world then he'd probably be able to keep it secret from Saku-
Shirou's eyes widened and he almost leapt out of Venus's arms.
What the hell had that been?! He'd actually been considering cheating on Sakura? What was wrong with him? Something wasn't right here, something was wrong. Venus might be one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen, but that shouldn't be causing this sort of reaction from him.
Turning to the chestnut haired civilian he'd rescued Shirou opened his mouth to say that it was time for them to get her out of here so he could go into the last parts of the station to-
Sting.
Sting.
Sting.
Wait, what had he been thinking? Damn it, it was this smoke from the divine flames that were burning in far too many places for comfort, something about it was messing with his head, making him constantly lose his train of thought. Thank goodness that Venus was here with him; her presence was helping him stay on track.
Now, back to the search, there couldn't be too many trapped civilians left in here.
-()-
Godou watched the shining chariot come bearing down on him with a certain sense of detached frustration. It was simply moving too fast. In a way it was almost as bad as it had been earlier when he'd watched Apollo loose that arrow at him while he was paralysed. Once again it was as though his senses had sped up to meet the threats while his flesh remained too treacherously slow to do anything about what he was seeing.
He could see the hooves of the horses strike up sparks as they hit the ground. He could see the grass blacken and burst into flames as the golden wheels ran over it. He could see Apollo's face break into a vicious smirk as he bore down upon his target, but despite that he couldn't move fast enough to do anything about it, his limbs were just too tired and bruised to respond as he wanted them to.
"KING GODOU!"
The shout was accompanied by a sudden impact to his side that sent him tumbling out of the path of the chariot only a scant second or two before it would have run him over. There was a sulphurous curse as Apollo's vehicle roared past him, a prisoner of its own momentum, and then silence.
As he lay with his back on the ground and his head ringing from having bounced off the ground as he fell Godou became aware of something soft and warm pressing down on him. Shaking his head to clear it he looked down to see a black and white blur apparently sitting on top of him.
"Ah, hello your majesty, it looks like I was able to arrive just in time."
Oh yes, he knew that voice. That distinct combination of seriousness and carelessness was very easy to identify.
"Ena?"
"Good, King Godou is unhurt. Ena was a bit worried that you might have taken a few too many blows before we arrived."
"We . . . ?"
His head was still ringing a bit, but his thoughts were coming together a bit easier now, enough that he was becoming aware of just what position he and Ena were in.
The buxom Hime-Miko had apparently fallen on top of him when she'd pushed him out of the chariot's path and was now sitting on his hips in a rather . . . risqué pose.
"E-Ena! G-Godou-san! What are you doing, that is not appropriate behaviour at all!"
The outraged and slightly frazzled voice that came from the side was also easily recognizable. It would seem that Yuri had come to join the party as well. The seventh Campione felt a slightly guilty spike of exultation rise in his heart. On the one hand he was a bit guilty that the girls were all here putting themselves in danger on his behalf. On the other hand he was glad that they were here because he was well aware of the strengths that they all brought to his side. Where before things had been looking pretty bleak now they seemed to be swinging back in his favour.
"Ah, Yuri-chan, you've arrived at just the right time. This is your chance to advance your relationship with his majesty while helping him defeat a Heretic God."
Ena's cheerful pronouncement was enough to bring the shrine maiden's tirade about proper behaviour to a screeching halt as an expression of perplexity replaced her earlier outrage.
"Huh?"
"King Godou needs knowledge of this deity in order to forge his golden swords. You've read this god before in Marquis Voban's Authority, so it should be easy for you to use your Spirit Vision on him again. Once you have the knowledge you can kiss his majesty and make some headway on your competitors while being of aid to our King."
Ena said it all with an extremely pleased look on her face, as though she had succeeded in planning some sort of master strategy, the absurdity of the situation made even more so by the fact hat she still hadn't moved from where she was sitting on top of him. Yuri on the other hand was rooted to the spot and blushing bright red.
"Where are Erica and Liliana?" he asked hoping to distract the two girls.
"Both were left exhausted from lending their strengths to you your majesty." The black haired Hime-Miko of the sword declared, "We instructed some of the agents that came with us to get them to safety until they recovered. You needn't worry about them."
Well, that was one less thing to weigh on his mind. Unfortunately there was still a rather weighty factor pressing down on his thoughts, and that particular factor had managed to bring his chariot around and was now facing him again. Moving as gently but as firmly as he could Godou lifted Ena off him and shakily got to his feet.
"Again," Apollo's voice once more reached across the distance that separated them despite the volume of his words not having noticeably increased. "Again you have escaped your death. Those women of yours continue to save you from my wrath, are you so feeble that you must rely upon them to rescue you from danger."
The words were laden with contempt and derision, but somehow it wasn't able to sting Godou's ego. In a way he'd come to accept the girls in a way he hadn't before since the Feast of Kings. It had been there that he'd realized that he regarded them as a part of his Rule, in many ways they were as much a part of what made him a Campione as his own Authorities were.
"If it weren't for them I'd have been dead a long time ago."
He said it more for himself than he did for Apollo, but from the way his features hardened it was clear that he'd heard the young King and was interpreting what he'd said as a slight. With a jerk to his reins he brought the chariot to point directly at the small group and began to charge forwards.
As the glowing golden vehicle and the divine horses that drew it began to close on them Godou began to mentally review what his options were and ignored what Ena and Yuri were saying to each other.
Alright, he'd used more than half of his Authorities, so that the only ones still available to him were the Camel, the Youth, the Ram and The Warrior. The Warrior remained as his trump card, but he still didn't have the knowledge to use it. Yuri might be able to provide that to him, but unless she volunteered there was no way he was going to press her for that. It went against both his principles and his sense of propriety.
Still with the Warrior out of the equation that just left the Camel and the divine sword he still held in his hand. The Youth might be able to empower Yuri and Ena to the point where they could aid him, but it wasn't a power he was comfortable using. Not only did it put them directly in harms way if they helped him but it also caused them great pain when he imparted his blessings upon them.
The Ram wasn't really a combat asset; more of a last card to play if is seemed that he'd lose. In any case the recovery time needed for him to return to consciousness was simply too long for it to be of any use in this battle. Not with the Heretic God apparently so eager to rip his corpse apart if given half a chance.
So that left the Camel and Ama no Murakumo.
At the moment he had taken enough damage to activate the Camel Authority, but had held off on doing so to keep it as a final card to play. The divine sword of Susanoo might be able to do damage to the chariot, but if he did take that approach then it would definitely put him at the disadvantage. Combining the two was an all or nothing strategy though, it might work but-
"Um . . . excuse me Godou-san."
The voice was accompanied by a light tapping on his shoulder. Distracted by his thoughts he instinctively turned to face the source of the delicate query . . . and was taken completely by surprise as slender hands pressed against his chest and soft lips pressed against his own.
The rush of knowledge that came to him was strangely familiar; he could remember it from when Erica had imparted it upon him during the battle with Voban. This time though there was a different 'flavour' to it. It felt fuller, more complete than the mortal knowledge that his first knight had given him. But then this wisdom that he received was from the beautiful Hime-Miko, and she had gleaned it from the Memories of the Void, a repository of knowledge no human could ever hope to match.
"That's the way Yuri-chan!" Ena cheered her friend on.
Their lips parted and the Yamato Nadeshiko stepped back while blushing beet red at her forwardness.
"Godou-san, I-"
Whatever else she might have been about to say was cut of as with a roar or outrage the chariot of gold accelerated towards them.
"YOU WILL NOT SHAME ME BY YOUR DISMISSAL ANY MORE BASTARD OF PANDORA!" Apollo roared as he once more bore down upon them, "YOU AND YOUR HARLOTS CAN ENJOY EACH OTHERS' COMPANY AS ASH ON THE WIND!"
-()-
Venus seemed to be occupying all his thoughts now. Wherever he went Shirou was now acutely aware of how far or how close he was to her. Every time he saw a woman or girl his mind seemed to automatically compare the two and immediately find whomever he saw as wanting. When he moved so much as a step he found himself wondering how he appeared to her. When he spoke he worried about how he sounded to her.
This was perfectly natural, nothing to be worried about. After all she was an exquisitely beautiful woman so it was to be expected that he'd hold her in such regard, especially since she seemed to like him. It was just that there was something that tugged at his thoughts, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on-
Sting.
Did Venus look a bit on the tired side? Yes, she definitely seemed to be breathing heavily and there was a thin sheen of perspiration on her skin. Of course she looked beautiful despite that, but if going into the now burning train station was causing her inconvenience then perhaps he should leave her at the exit when next they returned.
Sting.
It would be hard to tear himself away from her but it would be needed if he was to save that last few people caught in-
Sting.
He had to save the-
Sting.
He had to save-
Sting.
He-
His eyes seemed to fix upon the beauty before him who was now leaning against a wall and gasping for breath as though she had run a marathon. The world seemed to be oddly distorted, as though he were gazing at it through a sort of pearly sheen, but that wasn't important.
All that was important was the goddess before him, the incarnation of beauty that filled his eyes and dazzled his senses. He had to save her, who cared about these insignificant others that were left. There could only be one or two more left. What did they matter? What did any mat-
From deep within him there rose up an image. It was a girl only slightly younger than him, with purple hair and eyes with a sweet but sad smile on her face. Her beauty was nothing compared to Venus's but . . .
Sakura.
Without really knowing why he turned in the direction of the last corridor and charged in. Behind him there was a startled, but none the less lovely, exclamation of surprise. But he . . . no, he didn't ignore it, how could he? Instead he focused on getting these last civilians saved so he could get back to Venus as soon as possible. That was it, that was why he was doing this.
So why did he feel like someone was screaming just out of hearing range?
He found them quickly, a young man and a young girl, one who looked so drab and plain when compared to Venus, at the far end of a room filling with smoke. They were both passed out on the floor, and it was probably their prone positions that had kept them from suffocating in the burning fumes. Picking them up he slung them over his shoulders and stumbled out before the smoke could start to affect him.
That was it. These were the last of the civilians. A spell cast by one of the mages had confirmed how many there were, though the divine fires burning all over the place had made it impossible to use that spell to determine their locations. With these last two they were all saved and he could-
Sting.
Sting.
Sting.
Venus, he could dump them out of the exit and then turn all his focus upon Venus. He could-
Sting.
S-Saku-
Sting.
Sa-
Sting.
S-
Sting.
The pearl sheen blotted out his thoughts.
-()-
Even as the chariot bore down on him Godou didn't flinch. Within him he felt the Authority of the warrior rise to the surface. In response to his silent wish Ama no Murakumo faded from existence and returned to its sheath in his right arm.
"Apollo is a god that has known many names and attributes. You have been called Aplu by the ancient Hittie, then the Greeks named you as Apollo Smintheus. The Myceneans once called you Paean, but that name became subsumed into Apollo as well."
As he spoke the night was lit by the appearance of first dozens and then hundreds and then thousands of glowing golden swords. As more and more of them appeared the powerful Authority reached out and subsumed the entire area into as separate layer of reality, an alternate space created by the divine power that now belonged to the young Kusanagi. Before long the park was gone and the very earth itself glowed golden with the power that now coursed through it.
The sudden turn of events caught the Greek deity off guard and he brought his vehicle to a halt as he stared at the strangely changed landscape.
Godou didn't hesitate though; instead he grasped one of the golden swords in both his hands and continued to recite his spell words as he fed the knowledge into his Authority.
"You were once also called Phoebus, Phanaeus, Helius, Actiacus, Culicarius, Medicus, you have known so many names over time, and yet they have all been subsumed into Apollo. The diversity of your Authorities is a result of all the guises under which you have been worshipped."
In response to his words the golden swords that had previously been floating almost dreamlike in the air now seemed to snap into orientation so that they were all aimed at the chariot riding god. The sound of those thousands upon thousands of weapons cutting through the air as the readied themselves was chilling and yet defiant.
"The bow, poetry, plague, medicine, the sun, music, prophecy, you have so many Authorities and yet there seems to be little connection between them. However when one learns your other names and aspects then it becomes clearer."
It was now Godou that was charging at his foe, the pain having faded from his limbs and the huge curved golden sword clutched tightly in both hands. All about him the other swords responded to his will and a golden rain descended upon Apollo as the swords fell upon him. They were deflected by the aura of his divinity that cloaked the chariot and the beasts that pulled it, but even as most of the swords glanced off the protection other blades lodged into the field and began to force their way in.
"You seek to violate my divinity, is that it?!" The Heretic God roared as he cracked his reins and set the horses to charging once more. "Come then, let us see if you can do so before I trample your corpse into the ground!"
"You are a god that has been worshipped in many forms, but you have always remained a single entity. Rather than being many gods that have been merged into a single deity you are a single deity that has performed in the place of many gods. You are a god of earth with strong ties to the sky, a deity that brings the relief and cruelty of the land as well as the light and inspiration of the heavens!"
As he ran the swords about him were falling into a sort of formation about and behind him. Godou now found himself charging forwards as the tip of a huge lance head formation comprised of him and more than a thousand of the glowing golden weapons. Their glow had now expanded to enclose him as well and so even though he was but one man on foot charging at a three horse chariot he felt no fear.
"You are closely identified to the sun in many of the separate roles that you have taken on. Indeed your name as Helius is the origin of Helios, who was also known as Helios Apollo. The Sun is the seat of your power in the heavens and it is the power of the Sun that you now ride!"
Both him and the horse drawn divine vehicle met with a sound like mountains crashing together.
Despite how it might have looked at first he didn't actually have much physical contact with the chariot or the divine beasts pulling it. The true clash was between the auras of godly power that enveloped them both. For a brief instant there was a struggle, then the tip of his blade drove through the opposing divinity and into the flesh of the right most horse.
From there it was as though a dam had burst. The swords that had been following in his wake seemed to flow over and around him like some sort of living river of gold. Each sword seemed eager to attack and in the space of an instant the young King lost sight of his foe as he and his vehicle were obscured by a tide of swords. There were a few brief seconds when the sound of the blades striking their targets was all that could be heard, then light shone through from between the swords. That light was so intense that it made the glow of the golden weapons seem dull and murky by comparison.
The light seemed to swell behind its shell of swords and then suddenly it exploded outwards in a slowly spreading hemisphere of light. Godou instinctively brought up his arms to shield his face, but as the brilliance swept over him he felt nothing.
Then a cannonball seemed to slam into his stomach with enough force to lift him off his feet and fling him through the air. In the background he could hear both Ena and Yuri cry out in alarm, but the majority of his attention was taken up by the roaring in his ears as he tried to get his breath back. The blow had brutally driven all the air from his lungs and even as he came crashing back down to the ground he found that all he could do was roll onto all fours as he gasped for air.
"You . . . you cursed illegitimate piece of refuse! How dare you do this to me?! How dare you violate my Divinity?!"
Through eyes that were teared up from a lack of breath Godou saw the Greek deity advancing on him; though by the looks of things Apollo wasn't too much better off than he was.
The archer god was clearly favouring one leg over the other, his hair no longer possessed its former lustre but now seemed drabber to the point of being grey, the golden laurel wreath was gone as was the armour on his left side. Behind him his bow and quiver lay on the ground, the bow broken and the quiver flattened and empty. Blood ran down his left side from a deep shoulder wound and his chariot was nowhere to be seen. The only remnants of it were a few tiny flames burning in the grass behind him.
"King Godou!"
The voice was definitely Ena's and it was a fair bit closer than before. Was she trying to save him? No, even if Apollo was reduced he was still a god, she couldn't-
A sudden noise consumed his world and obliterated all thoughts. It wasn't music, not in any way that he could recognize, but at the same time it wasn't random noise either. There were definitely notes to it and there was some sort of order as well, some sort of pattern. It wasn't simply a chaotic mess; there was a distinct rhyme and reason there to the sequence of the notes.
And yet it wasn't music, of that could be sure due to a single simple fact.
Music didn't eat at his mind and claw at his sanity as this abominable sound did.
Before the seventh Campione had been forced to his hands and knees by his lack of breath, now he found himself curled up and trying to cover his ears to shut out that terrible noise. He'd felt it moving in his mind, had felt it as it had chipped away at his sanity and sent ripples of chaos running through his mentality.
Just as suddenly as the sound had begun it cut off and Godou found himself staggering to his feet as he tried to face his foe. He didn't know how, but he had to stop Apollo from using that again. Something like that, an attack that completely bypassed his body and assaulted his very mind and sanity . . . it was monstrous in a way that surpassed all other Authorities that he'd encountered.
"I'm not going to kill you," Apollo's voice was no longer enraged but rather was calm and collected. He now held his tortoise shell lyre in his hands and his fingers caressed the strings. "I shall leave you alive, you and your women. But you shall all be gibbering maddened wrecks. You shall live out the rest of your days as living monuments to the harsh reality of what can await those foolish enough to defy the gods that stand so high above them."
The god of music didn't approach his victims; instead he remained where he was and stared at them with a sort of detached clinical interest.
"I'm done with you here boy, I shall sink you into a world of madness then I shall hunt down that brat that slew me so many years ago and exact my revenge upon him as well. After that . . . maybe I shall make it a sport to hunt down the rest of your cursed brethren and see to slaying them as well."
The sheer self-satisfied confidence of the god's words was enough to put Godou's teeth on edge. The threat that the girls with him would be forced to suffer the same fate as him was enough to spark his rage and fill him with wrath. The horror of his possible future as a helpless madman was enough to send a chill of icy fear down his spine. Yet all of these he ignored, instead he stared at the god that stood some distance from him and found himself chuckling with dark humour.
"Why do you laugh?!" the Greek god's question cracked like a whip as he glared at his foe. "What possible reason could you have to find mirth in this?!"
"Well there are a couple of things actually," Godou replied as he forced himself to stand up a bit straighter despite the pain in his stomach, "And when you know those two things it's rather hard not to laugh."
"And what do you know? Answer me!"
"Well, first I know that even if you do defeat me there's no way you'll ever beat Voban. I've fought him and I've fought you, and I can tell you right now that he's definitely the bigger monster out of the two of you. Go and fight him if you want, I promise you that he'll simply kill you again, probably with the very Authority that he usurped from you. It's probably the kind of thing he'd find amusing."
"You said there were two things that you knew, I hope for your sake the second is more insightful bastard of Pandora, because if it isn't then I shall make your descent into madness a nightmare that shall never end for you."
"Oh yeah . . . you know that Authority of mine that you stole earlier?"
"The horse of sun fire that I yoked to my chariot? Of course I remember it you fool."
"You did that with your Authority of the sun."
Frustration and contempt were now written across the face of Apollo as he glared at the humbled Campione that, despite being on his hands and knees, seemed to be somehow mocking him.
"If you will continue to babble only inanities then I see no reason to spare your sanity for even an instant longer!" he declared as he once more raised his hand to touch the strings.
"I severed that Authority."
The calm and quiet answer made the Heretic God pause as he tried to understand why that would account for the sudden change in his seemingly defeated foe's attitude. Of course he'd severed his Authority as the rider of the Sun, what should that matter? His chariot might be gone but that didn't change-
His eyes widened as the realization struck him.
His chariot was gone.
Sudden panic washed across his face as he spun in place despite the pain it caused his injured leg, however it was too late. The tiny fires that had been burning behind him exploded into huge pillars of flame that reached into the sky like great curving fingers. The pillars bent and met and merged, and from that mass of fire emerged the White Stallion that had previously been yoked to the reins of the Sun god's chariot.
It was difficult to read the emotions of a divine beast made up entirely of celestial flames, but there was definitely something in the posture and intensity of the burning animal that spoke of rage. This elemental being had been enslaved by a foe of its master and now that it was free its wrath at that action was clear for all to see. The White Stallion was now burning in a way that it had never done before, indeed the grass and trees nearest to it were blackening and bursting into flame from the heat it was radiating.
Apollo's eyes locked upon the creature that was now more like a miniature star than it was a horse and took a stumbling step backwards in instinctive fear.
That was all it took. With a snorting scream of rage the burning stallion descended upon its former enslaver like a falling sun. Apollo barely had time for one sharp outcry of dismay before the destructive Authority crashed into him and he was enveloped in another expanding dome of flames.
However this time was different to how it had been before. This time the hemisphere of flames was even large than before, huge enough to envelope a mansion rather than a simple house. Indeed for a moment Godou feared that the destructive dome would grow too huge to be contained by the park, but then it ceased to expand just before it reached the park's borders.
In addition to its size was the intensity, last time the fires had been fierce and had expanded, but there had been a sense that they were simply flowing out from the source of the detonation. This time though it was as if the outside of the dome was a field that contained the flames, and within that field the fire wasn't simply flowing. Instead it was whipping around at hurricane-level speeds, tearing at anything caught within that field again and again like some enraged animal.
Quite simply before was a detonation, this . . . this was a cataclysm, a trapped firestorm.
It only lasted for a brief few seconds, but the sensation of that rage, that fury, it made the seventh Campione wonder if he yet truly understood the full extent of the powers that he held. As he watched the flames slowed and faded and the dome that had held the pyroclysm in check faded as well. As it did so it revealed all that was left of what had been inside that dreadful inferno.
Nothing.
Nothing had survived, not a stone, not a tree, nor a blade of grass. Everything had been razed as thoroughly as could be imagined.
No, wait, that wasn't quite right. Just a few feet from the edge of the field was a small mound, more of a lump on the earth really. It was covered in ash and would have been easy to miss were it not for the fact that the rest of the area that had been affected had been blasted as flat as the surface of a lake. Then, before his astonished eyes, the mound moved and he saw what it was.
Apollo hadn't weathered the vengeance of the White Stallion well. His body was a mass of burn scars so horrible that not one inch of his original skin tone remained. His hair was completely gone and his face was a seared ruin. Even his limbs hadn't entirely survived as the hands and feet at the ends of his arms and legs had apparently been consumed by the inferno. Had the god been mortal then the mere experience of such wounds would have been enough to stop his heart, but Apollo was an immortal and as such the peace of oblivion was denied to him.
Even so, though crippled, maimed and mutilated he still forced himself to kneel upright as Godou approached him. Though his face was a ruin with his lips, nose and eyelids seared away his one surviving eye glared at the young King with unrelenting hatred.
"You won't stop will you?" The words came to Godou as he stopped before the maimed god and stared down at him. "Even after all this, if I leave you, if I let you go, you won't stop will you?"
"Ne . . . ver."
The word was a whispered croak, yet it was laden with hatred and malice beyond anything the seventh Campione had ever heard. This god would never relent, he'd never accept defeat, he'd never stop. Despite his pitiful condition he still bore his enemy unrelenting hatred that could not be quenched.
There had only ever been a single possible conclusion to this battle, Godou realized. Only the death of one of them would suffice anything less would simply be a delay, a stopgap, nothing more.
And with that realization came another horrible revelation. He'd have to kill Apollo, and this wouldn't be a death in the heat of battle or anything of the like. This was going to be a cold blooded execution, no; it was a murder plain and simple.
"King Godou?" the voice of Ena came from his side, oddly hesitant for her he noted.
"King Godou, if you wish I can take care of this . . ."
She had a sword in her hands, a traditional Japanese straight sword and she was gazing past him at the ruin that had once been a deity. She was offering to be the one to deal the final blow.
His mind latched onto that, like a drowning man grabbing a life belt. That could work, he could go with that. He could keep his own hands clean and . . .
. . . And let Ena stain her own hands in order to spare him.
As soon as his mind completed the thought Godou felt like hitting himself for even letting such an idea cross his mind. Was that how he'd repay her for her aid? By letting her take care of the dirty and foul business that he wanted to avoid? Was that the kind of King he wanted to be to her, to all the others as well?
This . . . this was something that needed to be done. Godou didn't really care about gaining a new Authority or claiming to have slain another god, but Apollo was an existence that he couldn't allow to continue. It was a bitter truth, but the god had to be slain and returned to his legend. Quite simply mercy wasn't an option.
He first turned to the black haired Hime-Miko and simply shook his head, then he turned back to face the god he had defeated.
"I don't want this." He said as he once more willed the Ama no Murakumo to manifest in his hand.
Apollo remained silent, perhaps he couldn't speak any more given the mutilated state of his lips and tongue, perhaps his earlier croaked word had been all he was able to produce. In place of speech he simply glared at his vanquisher, a spiteful glower filled with hatred and venom but no fear.
"Go back to your legend." With those words Godou swung his sword.
To the young God Slayer it was as though the situation was slightly unreal. The Greek god had been on his knees, his shoulders slumped from pain and his head hanging, so the cut of the divine sword that he held wasn't any sort of attack that could have been used in battle. It was an executioner's blow pure and simple.
Godou watched with a vague sense of detachment as the keen edge of Ama no Murakumo cut through Apollo's neck with no more resistance than would have been offered by butter. He watched with that same detachment as the head fell to the ground and bounced with an odd noise that he couldn't quite equate to anything else he'd ever heard before.
There was no blood, some corner of his mind noted, even though the god was covered in burns and his head had been removed there was no blood. Odd that.
Then the body and the severed head began to dissolve into particles of light, a sort of glowing sand that was picked up by the gentle breeze, scattered and which then disappeared.
Even as the seventh Campione felt an odd pressing sensation in his chest only one thought occupied his mind.
It had been bitter and it had been difficult, but he had won.
He'd won.
-()-
She'd won!
Venus leaned against a wall and gasped for breath as she felt rivulets of sweat run down her sides. She couldn't remember the last time in her life that she'd felt so exhausted, the last time that she'd had to push her Authorities so. But it had been worth it, looking up she stared at the fruits of her effort.
The young red haired King stood across from her, still carrying the two mortals that he'd dragged from the room before he'd fallen under her sway. Now he simply stood there his face blank but his eyes locked upon her in a way that was at once intense and yet strangely blank or glazed.
That caused her to frown even as she finally managed to straighten up. She hadn't planned to go this far, but then she hadn't thought that she'd need to. Her first efforts had used the Arrows of Eros to try to immediately ensnare his heart, but while those had initially proven to be enough to allow her to stay by his side and scatter his suspicions it hadn't been enough. The natural resistance granted to a God Slayer as well as this Emiya Shirou's own strength of will had proven to be a potent union though and before long it had become clear that the arrows of her Authority would not be enough.
So she had turned to the use of an older and stronger Authority, the Heart Thief. It was a power of hers that she disliked using since it offended her sense of pride. After all she was a goddess of beauty and love, one that could draw any mortal, monster or god to her as she wished. The Heart Thief was an Authority that allowed her to steal the love of her victim, she could take a love that they had and replace that love's focus with herself, essentially taking a love that already existed rather than creating a new one. The thought that she was unable to create new passion with her target but instead had to take an already existing one rankled her, so she rarely used it.
As she stared at her newest conquest she couldn't help but shake her head in amazement. The way Heart Thief worked was by taking the small loves first and then moving on to the larger ones, in that way it was almost horribly subtle. First it would replace such loves as favoured foods or beloved childhood locations, then it would move onto larger fare such as love for friends or past romances now ended. What made it truly dangerous was that the target almost never realized what was happening as Venus slowly filled their hearts with herself.
Of course normally she stopped after the subject of her Authority was suitably besotted with her, but this Shirou had been an impossibly hard nut to crack. There was a love in his heart, to some girl with plum-coloured hair if the image she had glimpsed was anything to go by, that he'd held onto until the very end. The Heart Thief had had taken more and more of his loves, but that had remained stubbornly out of its grasp. She'd taken his love of family, his love of self, his very love of life and he'd still refused to let it go. He'd clung to it even as the power of a deity had inexorably ripped it from him.
This was the result though, she had taken every scrap of love from him and replaced it with nothing but longing and affection for her. The problem was that as he was he couldn't really express those emotions that she'd forced upon him any more. This was due to her having eroded his sense of self, in many ways he was now little better than an automaton or some Authority conjured servant.
Still, the effort of accomplishing that had left her drained, more so than she could ever remember being. Right now almost the entirety of her power was focused upon keeping the Campione under her control; she barely had enough power left over to maintain her mortal disguise.
Actually, now that she thought of it, why was she still wearing this façade? Her goals had been reached and with this God Slayer in her thrall there was no longer any need for her to hide herself. Certainly her powers were exhausted and her Authorities tied up, but what did that matter when this young Devil King would without hesitation lay down his life to protect her if needs be?
The disguise fell away and she luxuriated in the sensation of it. Now what to do? As fatigued as she was it would be unwise to try to translocate herself or assume another form by which to travel, doing so might well place her in danger. No, the most sensible thing would be to use her new servant's steed. She'd seen it when he'd arrived, a powerful seeming Pegasus that could easily carry them both.
Her mind made up the goddess of love and beauty began to make her way towards the exit where the mortals were being evacuated. She didn't even need to turn to confirm that Shirou was following her. How could he not? She was his entire world after all.
It was a pity she didn't turn, if she had then she'd have noticed that the enthralled Campione was still carrying the two civilians he'd saved.
If she had turned then she might have realized that something wasn't quite as she wished it to be.
-()-
Guinevere didn't understand why she was feeling so restless today.
For the last few weeks she'd kept herself occupied in her manor doing all she could to study both the spear that Sir Shirou had gifted to her and every scrap of information that she'd been able to obtain about the newest Devil King. Both tasks had proven to be both interesting and time consuming. In the case of the spear it was because the weapon seemed to defy all her attempts to categorize it given that it somehow seemed to possess many conflicting properties that should have been unable to coexist in a single artefact. As for the information, well that was even more of a struggle. Sir Shirou and his sister had apparently appeared out of nowhere and had been less than forthcoming in regards to their past. As a result of that and the tiny hints that they had given out the entire intelligence departments of half the mystic associations in Europe and Asia had been frantically trying to piece together all that they could about the eighth Campione's mysterious past.
The end result of this was a great collection of hearsay and wild suppositions that ranged from the well thought out to the absurd. In truth some of the accounts were rather entertaining to read as they provided some wildly improbable pasts for the young man that the Witch Queen found herself so interested in.
One report suggested that he was the result of a circle of mages having identified him as a potential God Slayer when he was very young and having raised him in seclusion in order to maximize his potential. Another report was convinced that there was some sort of link between Sir Shirou and Marquis Voban, even going so far as to suggest that the Illya girl was his daughter and the newest King was his adopted son. There was even one by some independent fellow that suggested that Sir Shirou's strange brand of magic was proof that he wasn't a being of this world. The report actually went on to postulate that the King of Steel was some sort of other worldly being such as an alien or some such entity, indeed it even used his existence to lend weight to the theory that there were humans on the other planets nearby. That one had given her a bit of laughter when she'd read it. The very idea was ludicrous.
As a Divine Ancestor Guinevere didn't require nearly as much sleep as a mortal unless she was recovering from some sort of exertion. As a result she often went two or three nights without retiring to her bed, which was why she was up at this ungodly hour. But there was more than simply a desire to continue her investigation keeping her from sleeping. There was something else, a sensation that she couldn't quite explain. She felt . . . tight in her own skin, as though there were something that she should be doing, but she didn't even know what it was.
In an effort to quell her restlessness Guinevere had picked up the spear that radiated the presence of her beloved King and had made her way down to the lake once more.
She wasn't going to speak to Sir Knight once more, not this time. She simply wanted to get out of the walls of her manor and spend some time gazing at the moon. The night was a clear one and the moon was three quarters full so it was a good time for her celestial viewing.
She supposed that a part of her unsettlement was due to the battle that she could feel taking place between King Kusanagi and some unidentified deity. She'd thought of going to observe it, but she'd sensed that the Heretic God was not a deity of Steel, but rather one of Earth. If that was the case then there was small chance that whoever the young King was fighting would have any bearing upon her own quest to revive her beloved Artus, as such it had nothing to do with her.
So why was it that she felt she should be there?
The thought made little sense, while she had a certain amount of respect for the other young King of this land the main focus of her interest was Sir Shirou, and as far as she could feel his own involvement in the situation was peripheral at best.
Something suddenly caught her attention. For some time now she had felt the young man that she had titled as the King of Steel using his Authorities. He hadn't been using them in combat so she had thought little of it, but now she felt something . . . off about the tiny point of light in her mind's eye that represented his power. It seemed to be glazed, sheened over in a way that she'd never seen before.
Then she started in surprise as she suddenly sensed a clearly divine presence bloom into existence right beside Sir Shirou. The point of divinity looked wan and exhausted, but it was clearly a Heretic God, of that there could be no doubt.
What was this? Why was there a rogue deity right next to the young man that had saved her? And why wasn't he reacting to it? What had that unidentified divinity done to him?
Without even stopping to think as to why she was doing it the one time goddess drew on her magic and transported herself to the location of the King she had named.
-()-
Venus had felt all the eyes of those present fall upon her as soon as she and her servant entered the main area of this mortal building. Already the divine fires of Apollo had spread and were beginning to cause the final collapse of the structure, but that was of no importance to her. She was a goddess of beauty, and beauty existed to be seen, to be adored, as such it was in her very nature to desire an audience.
Here were all those mages that Emiya Shirou had granted his divine protection. The armours that he'd imparted upon them protected them from the flames left by Apollo as well as the smoke that would otherwise have choked them. Before them all was a short and slighter figure than the others clad in differently coloured armour. She was holding an eastern spear weapon and was backed by a huge lead-skinned giant of a man. Under other circumstances the beautiful roman goddess might have been worried by the raw power the figure exuded, but with her new conquest she knew she didn't need to fear.
"What have you done to Onii-chan?"
The voice was that of a young girl, but there was iron in that tone that even a god would know to at least notice if not fear.
"He's not your 'Onii-chan' anymore child," she replied allowing her face to be kind but her tone to be cruel, "He's not your anything anymore. He's mine now, he's all mine, every last scrap of him."
Behind her the young Campione had come up behind her allowing the two civilians he'd been carrying to slip from his shoulders. Had she been watching the goddess might have noted that the two unconscious mortals were well away from any fires and in a place where the smoke wasn't gathering much.
Looking around she saw how the mages were gathering themselves. She also saw how the small armoured figure before her also seemed to be tensing. Under normal circumstances these mortals would hardly have been a threat to her; indeed she could have easily reduced them all to willing slaves with ease. However now not only was she exhausted but her Authorities were either engaged or spent and these humans all had divine protection upon them that made a far more serious danger than they would have been otherwise. Well, she could do something about that at least.
"Shirou!" she declared addressing her enthralled servant, "Remove your protection from them."
At her command the armours that had been about the mortals that had sworn their loyalty to the eighth Campione began to fade. The metal seemed to break apart into a cloud of glowing particles which themselves disappeared in turn. In the space of an instant the humans that had previously been a credible threat were reduced to their natural state as minor nuisances.
Well, not all of them. Despite being bereft of her armour the young girl before her still held her weapon and still seemed to control that strange giant.
"Let him go!" the words were angry and that anger seemed to be shared by the black hulk because a low growl rumbled up from his chest.
That noise alone was enough to let Venus know that this . . . unnatural being was dangerous. It was a being that could conceivably kill her. Even worse was the fact that it seemed to be empty of all thought or feelings, it was nothing more than an automaton that served its master. Consequently it lacked any of the emotions or drives that Venus was normally able to control in order to attain her victories.
However her view of the being was cut off as Shirou suddenly stepped into place between them. Excellent, he'd responded to her danger and moved to protect her as was her desire. This being might be powerful, but she was sure that it lacked the power of a true God Slayer.
For a moment she considered ordering her slave to attack, however even as the thought crossed her mind she felt a twinge within her, a reminder of the oath she had sworn and the consequences if she allowed her own desires to lead her to break it.
No, it wouldn't do to dally here longer than needs be.
"Ignore that toy," she instructed, "Get us out of here as fast as you can."
In response to her command the ceiling of the building suddenly burst inwards. There hadn't been much glass left there, only a few shards clinging to the frame, but the metal struts that had made up the huge sky light came crashing down as the white and winged form of the Pegasus she'd seen earlier broke its way through. It came to land directly next to the red haired King and moved between him and the black giant. Venus approached the magnificent steed and its eyes turned to glare at her, obvious venom in that stare.
Quite clearly the divine beast was aware that she had done something to its master, but equally clear was the fact that it could make no move against her, not while every fragment of its master's heart existed to adore her. The bespelled King mounted his steed and reached down to pull her up behind him.
The look on the girl's face was somewhat amusing to see. It was clear that she wanted to attack, to unleash her monster upon her and slaughter her in order to free her brother; however it was also clear that she realized that while he was protecting Venus there was no chance that the black giant could reach her. Instead she was gritting her teeth and forcing herself to watch as the winged horse carried them both off.
As they took to the skies the roman goddess allowed herself a laugh of triumph. She'd done it; she'd captured a Devil King. Glancing down she saw the white haired girl glaring up at her with murder in her eyes. Well, let her rage. What could she do? What could any mortal do to a goddess with a King at her command?
-()-
Brynhildr stared into the crystal orb and watched as the goddess of beauty and her captive took their leave.
She'd done it. Venus had actually succeeded in capturing the child of Pandora that they needed.
This meant that they'd soon be able to go through with the ritual; soon they'd be able to restore Andromeda to her full power, her full divinity.
The black seed in her heart had grown in the time since its planting. Shoots had come forth and thorns had emerged. A bud had grown and it was now ready to flower.
Why? Why should she receive her powers for no other reason than that they had attempted to capture the Campione needed for her ritual first? Why should her vengeance be delayed by even a second just so that the elder goddess could regain her lost stature first?
Resentment boiled up from inside her as memories of her humiliation, her abuse, boiled up from within her. Up until this point her preparations for betrayal had only been for in-case scenarios. She'd prepared them, but up until this point they had only been options, now she had decided that she was going to take them.
In her heart the bud burst and a bloom that was beautifully pure in its hatred and malice blossomed forth.
-()-
Illya's fists were gripped so tightly that her nails were digging into her palms. Indeed, if she had looked down and seen blood flowing from her hands she wouldn't have been surprised.
There'd been nothing she could do.
With a Noble Phantasm, a false Servant and all her talent and knowledge in magecraft she had been able to do nothing. She could have killed that goddess, of that she was sure. But Shirou . . . there was no way she could overcome him, not if he was serious, she knew that as clearly as she knew her own name.
So she'd been forced to watch as that . . . that harlot had stolen the most important person in her life from her.
"Umm . . . lady Einzbern?" The timid voice drew her out of her angry reverie and back to the present. Looking to the side she saw that she was being addressed by one of the mages that had sworn their loyalty to her adopted brother earlier.
"What?!" As soon as she spoke she was annoyed with herself. Shirou would have scolded her if he'd heard that, she had no right to take her anger out on those near her simply so she could feel better.
"W-What shall we do? His majesty has been taken by a Heretic Goddess, should we call King Kusanagi?"
His words seemed to bring the situation home to her in a way that her anger hadn't been allowing her to see. Shirou, her brother and one of the eight most powerful people in the world, was now apparently under the control of a Heretic God. This was bad in a way that beggared description. Illya might respect Kusanagi Godou, but she wouldn't be too confident of his ability to overcome Shirou if they had to fight.
Then her memory flashed back to a letter that Shirou had given her some time back, a letter that he'd said she should only open if something like this happened, if he was somehow controlled or made irrational.
He'd . . . he'd thought of something. Maybe not a plan, but at least it was something.
"One of you find King Godou and let him know what's happened," Illya barked trying to imitate the voice her grandfather had used when he'd been commanding the lesser members of the Einzbern clan. "Someone else, find me a way to get back to my home. Shirou had something planned in case this happened, some sort of contingency. Get me back to our manor so we can find out what it is."
Alright that was an exaggeration. In all truth she had no idea what was in that letter, for all she knew rather than a contingency plan it instead contained airplane tickets to the other side of the planet and instructions as to where he'd hidden a fortune in gemstones for her just in case. Still she had to hold onto something that could give her some hope.
In short order a car was brought for her and she was soon speeding back to he home as fast as the traffic would allow. As she was driven through the night she looked out into the darkness and wondered what would come with the dawn.
-()-
The God of the Sun, Lute and Healing had fallen to the Seventh Devil King.
The King of Steel had fallen to the spells of the goddess of love and beauty.
The Valkyrie maiden had fallen to the seed of treachery left in her heart.
Of the mighty three had fallen this night, and in the times to come more of the mighty would join them.
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
OMAKE: Problems for a Mage Killer.
Saber had felt the call of the Servant, whoever they were they were making no attempt to hide their presence, indeed they were broadcasting it for all to sense. It would seem that the first battle of the Holy Grail would soon be taking place.
"Ah, finally. I was beginning to think that none would have the courage to take up my challenge. It's good to see that the heroes summoned in this war are not as fearful as I had thought."
The speaker was a radiantly beautiful young woman clad in cloths from the past ages of the Chinese nation. By her side was a blond man who quite frankly looked as though he'd rather be anywhere except where he currently was. Both were standing out in the open amidst the rows of cargo crates that were in this part of the dock.
"Excellent!" Declared the unnamed woman as she clapped her hands together. "I am her Highness Luo Hao. I have been summoned under the Class of Lancer in this war. This fellow here is my subordinate and will be assisting me in my victory."
Her face grew slightly exasperated and Saber could have sworn she rolled her eyes.
"His talents are most adequate; however his approach and demeanour to battle leave much to be desired. Still, I hope to educate him before this war has ended in my victory."
"Don't be so quick to declare your victory," Saber said as she drew upon her Prana and shifted from her black suit to her armour, "I have no intention of surrendering the Holy Grail to anyone, if you intend to take it you'll have to best me first."
The smile that spread across the face of Luo Hao was a thing of hungry beauty. It was the expression of one that had long abstained from eating more than the minimum necessary that had then been told that for this upcoming meal they could eat as much as they wished. It was the face of one that lived to battle who had found a worthy foe.
Despite her claim of the title of Lancer the Eastern Servant didn't draw a weapon; instead she charged at Saber and met her with her bare hands. At first Arturia thought that this would mean a swift victory for her, after all flesh against her invisible sword set the odds decidedly in her favour. However in practice it was not to be, somehow despite not being able to see the blade this Luo Hao was able to enclose her hands in some sort of energy that allowed her to clash with the sword and not be slashed.
The battle came to an abrupt end when a sudden tendril of mercury suddenly lashed out at Irisviel. In response to the attack three things happened simultaneously. Firstly Saber broke off her battle and leapt in front of the white haired woman using the superhuman speed of a Servant. However before she could intercept the quicksilver strike the second thing happened, which was that with an almost negligent wave of her hand Lancer swatted the mercury attack into dozens of harmless droplets. At the same time her other hand lashed out fast as lightning and there was a flash of light as her palm intercepted the tiny lead pellet that had been about to blast her 'Master's' brains out.
"SERVANT! HOW DARE YOU?"
All activity in the area froze for an instant because, contrary to expectation, it hadn't been the Master who had protested his Servant saving an enemy but rather the Servant was castigating the 'Master'.
"B-But if we slay the master then the Servant will die."
That particular statement earned the mage such a forceful cuff to the back of the head that it knocked him over into the dirt.
"Fool, why would I possible wish to win in such a cowardly manner? I have here before me a foe of the rarest merit, that isn't something to discard so carelessly, and certainly not in so dishonourable a manner."
As her 'Master' picked himself up the martial artist glanced up at the cranes and buildings that overlooked the sight of the battle.
"It would seem though that you are not the only one that requires a lesson in manners though." With a casual wave of her hands Luo Hao gestured in a couple of directions and there was an almost visible surge of power.
Irisviel could only stare in amazement as two small cyclones of green dust appeared before her and then faded to reveal the forms of her husband and his assistant. Both were holding guns, but neither of them was foolish enough to even think to use them against a Servant.
"Emiya Kiritsugu? So you were aiding the Einzbern family."
The comment came from the downed mage that Lancer had castigated. He was now sitting up and rubbing the back of his head, and if his slightly resigned expression was anything to go by it would seem that his cuffing was something that he'd been experiencing all too much of late.
"Oh? Emiya you say?" The eastern beauty's voice was tinged with interest now. "Ah, so you are the father of King Shirou, he mentioned that his father's name was Kiritsugu. How fortuitous to meet with you."
The eyes of the Einzbern homunculus went wide as those words struck her. Kiritsugu had a son? He was a king and somehow knew this Servant?
"Kiritsugu . . . explain!"
It took her a moment to realize that the icy voice that echoed across the dock was her own.
In response the Magus Killer gulped at the glare that his wife was directing at him. Something told him that the Holy Grail war had suddenly become much more complicated than he could ever have expected.
Omake 2: Luo Hao Meets Rider.
"Join me in the glory of conquest Lancer. In my army so fine a fighter as you would be a magnificent addition."
"It is hardly proper for one King to serve another, but your proposal has some interest to it. What say we battle, the loser shall serve the victor in their conquest for the next ten years and then they shall battle again?"
"HA HA HA HA! A fine challenge. Very well, let us see who the greater King is."
Meanwhile.
"Waver Velvet, so . . . it was you, you are the one responsible for all my suffering. You . . . You . . . You . . ."
The young mange in question was currently cowering behind the protection offered by his Servant's Noble Phantasm. He'd been expecting a certain level of anger from his teacher given that he'd stolen an extremely old and powerful reagent; however the look of fury in the eyes of Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi was more than a bit on the unhinged side.
"Servant!" the voice cracked like a whip and caused the nobleman to reflexively flinch. "Cease your petty attempts to intimidate my foe's vassal and return to your proper place beside me. If I am to enter battle it is only fitting that I do so with my own vassals at my side as he does."
Waver wasn't sure, but he thought that just before his former teacher turned away from him he mouthed one word with naked desperation.
'Help me'.
