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.

Well, it was pretty annoying that the reviews and back part of went down on Christmas day. At least we could still read the fics and at least I managed to get the chapter up before it went down, but I still feel like I was cheated out of some reviews. Ah well, that's the way the cookie crumbles I guess.

Anyway, here it is at last. The single largest chapter I've ever written, and originally I planned for this and the last one to be one big chapter. If I had kept them as one then this would have been nearly 70,000 words long.

Wow.

In all truth I've been planning this arc of the story ever since I finished the battle with Mordred. I kept on wondering how I could make an even bigger battle than that, that was when I got the idea of Shirou facing off against his fellow God Slayers and all in all I think I can say with relative modesty that the results are pretty good.

Anyway, I think that now I'll take a bit of a break and work on another chapter of Why Me? Before getting on with chapter twenty two, it'll give my muse a chance to recharge her batteries for this story.

SPOILERS.

In regards to Shirou with the Armour of the Champion versus Godou's Shining Chariot; please remember that Shirou's Strength with Dragon Slaying Hero active is B+ and the armour grants an enhancement bonus on top of that. I figured that when you combined that with the enormous protective powers of the armour then Shirou being able to outmatch the chariot wasn't unthinkable. Unlike the chariot of the Rider in Fate/Zero Godou's vehicle isn't an immensely heavy construct, its main strength lies in its aura of heat and flames. Given that Shirou's armour can protect him from them at this level I don't think this outcome is too far outside the bounds of possibility.

For those of you that are interested, the broadsword that Shirou is wielding when he faces Luo Hao in close combat while wearing his armour is not a Noble Phantasm, so it doesn't get a mention at the bottom. It is in fact a Traced copy of the sword of the Arthurian Knight Sir Tristan. Like the chain nails of Medusa or the sword of Iskander this weapon is strong enough to clash with Noble Phantasms without being destroyed even if they don't have a power of their own. It also possesses the skills and knowledge of the knight that wielded it, a knight strong enough to slay a dragon in single combat. Since the remnant of Shirou wanted a weapon that would grant him the knowledge to fight in armour and wanted to reserve Arondight as a trump card this weapon was a suitable substitute.

Gae Bolg was something that gave me a bit of trouble writing. The problem with it has always been due to it being something of an auto kill Noble Phantasm, a bit too much of a game breaker to be used. Up until this point I've had Shirou refrain from using it due to his dislike of the blood thirsty weapon, but in his current state there would be no such restraint so I had to think of a suitable time to use it. Of course the problem I faced was how it could be used without it immediately winning the battle for him.

The result was the clash between it and Luo Hao, which I think turned out fairly well. Gae Bolg can only be avoided by those with high enough Luck or some sort of Divine Protection. As I understand it part of the Luck ability is the possessor's ability to defy fate, a quality that is naturally extremely high in all Campione. When you combine that with her mastery of martial arts and experience I thought that Luo Cuilian being able to avoid a lethal strike in a way similar to Saber was reasonable.

In the matter of Godou's Golden Swords vs Shirou's Traced blades I found myself in a bit of a quandary. In the end I decided to draw a bit on the Campione! anime for the Warrior Authority. While the anime had a few weak points I did find the work they did on that Authority to be pretty cool. In the anime Godou was able to use the swords he created to clash with the weapons of the gods he was fighting. He used them to cut the arrows of both Athena and Perseus even though he wasn't targeting their weapons as an Authority. He was also able to use the sword to temporarily fend off Voban's lightning even though it hadn't received any knowledge to do with that ability. Granted it was largely unsuccessful but it did have some effect.

Another factor is that in both the light novels and the anime it has been stated repeatedly that even the weakest Authority is still a power that far eclipses any mortal magic. With that in mind I think it's not unreasonable to assume that even if the Golden Swords are primarily meant to be used against divinities that they would also be a threat to mortal magics like Shirou's Traced swords.

This chapter also sees the long awaited arrival of Unlimited Blade Works. Now I've tried to keep it as accurate as I can while altering it to be suitable for the Shirou that has developed in my story, however I'm sure that those more knowledgeable than myself might spot one or two places where I might have slipped up. If so please be gentle. I also hope that the changes I've made to the appearance of it will go down well. I admit that the inclusion of a statue of Sakura in the centre of Unlimited Blade Works was a bit heavy handed, but it tied in nicely with how I wanted the final scene with Venus to go, so I decided to run with it.

In case anyone's wondering, the sword that Shirou used to kill Venus is Arondight since it has the rank needed to do the job and is especially responsive to Shirou's will.

In regards to my Omake, that was the result of me thinking about how the other Campione would fit into the various categories of Servants. With Luo Hao as Lancer it would be something like Shirou as Saber, John Pluto Smith as Archer, Godou (with his new chariot Authority) as Rider and Alec as Assassin. The places of Caster and Berserker were a bit harder to fill though, Aisha could be a Caster and Voban could be either a Caster of a Berserker. Then I got to thinking about Doni, who would be Saber if you didn't include Shirou.

After rereading the chapter in the Light Novels that details how he, Erica and Liliana met after he first became a Campione I got the idea of him being a berserker with a very low level of Madness Enhancement, say E or D rank. That and the fact that one of his Authorities is based around sending others berserk, or at least their powers though I don't know how that would translate for Noble Phantasms, made me think that he'd be qualified for the Berserker class.

That then got me to thinking about the Master of the Berserker of the fourth Holy Grail War. In all truth out of all the Masters I think Kariya was the one with whom I sympathized the most. Sure Kiritsugu might have been the 'hero' of the story, but it was rather hard to get behind him after the rather brutal ways in which he dealt with his foes. I'm well aware that it was intrinsic to his character but that was just how I felt.

On the other hand I found Kariya's determination to save Sakura, even though he knew it would cost him his life, to be most admirable. The tragedy of his attempts to beat Tokiomi and to save the daughter that isn't his was masterfully done and even brought a tear or two to my eyes when I first read it. This is my little attempt to give him a bit of a happier ending. If it proves to be popular I might end up writing a couple more Omakes just to flesh it out a bit more.

Incidentally I can confirm that Shirou has gained an Authority from Venus. I've already got it planned out, but if anyone wants to make any suggestions feel free, I've no trouble taking on an idea if it's better than what I came up with. There are just two criteria that the Authority must meet. The first is that this is an arguably powerful Authority; the second is that Shirou will hate using it. I've some future plotlines more or less set and these factors are critical. Still if you are inspired with something that doesn't match feel free to send it anyway, if nothing else it will provide valued inspiration.

Once again I'd like to offer my thanks to my Beta for the magic he's worked on my chapter.


Chapter Twenty One: The Tempest: Part 2

Mariya Yuri had been doing her best to employ her Spirit Vision upon Shirou-sama but so far she hadn't been having much luck.

Her ability was useful but more than a bit unreliable, and it was due to that unreliability that she'd so far not been able to gain any decent insight into any of the deities that the other Japanese King possessed. When he'd used that huge sword of black light the young Hime-Miko had strained to try and determine the origin of the god from whom it had been usurped, but despite her best efforts she'd not been able to learn anything.

After that things had become even more difficult as the entire battlefield had been covered in thick clouds of smoke and dust that had reduced the visibility down to almost nothing. Unable to get a clear line of sight on the ensorcelled Campione Yuri had felt the sharp bitterness of frustration and fear as she heard the sounds of battle sound from first one place and then another. Though normally she took a certain, and rather unusual, pride in having less physical stamina and aptitude than the average person there were times that she wished she was like Ena and could fight at the side of Godou rather than having to wait on the sidelines like this.

Another thing that she was cursing was her shyness that had kept her from suggesting to Godou that he use the power of his Youth Authority to grant her a boost of power before the battle. She knew that the reason that he hadn't suggested it was that he was still under the mistaken impression that the use of the Authority caused pain to those upon whom it was imparted.

Oh how wrong he was.

Just the memory of it was enough to make her face burn scarlet. Oh it didn't hurt, far from it . . . in fact it was about as far from it as it could get. Her cheeks burnt more as she remembered shamelessly using Godou's misconception and pleading for him to feed her more of his Authority through his kiss.

His hot, passionate kiss . . .

Afterwards she'd been too ashamed to say anything, and on top of that Erica had been very convincing when she'd said it would be better to let Godou keep his mistaken impression of his Authority. After all, as she pointed out, if he ever did learn of its true effects then there was a good chance that he'd declare that he'd never use it again even if it meant his life.

Yuri ceased her somewhat embarrassed ruminations as a sudden gust of wind blew the insufferable clouds of smoke and dust away. Before her the battlefield was suddenly fully visible, and that included the fighting forms of Godou and Shirou.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw the bloodstain running down from her King's right shoulder, but before she could even draw breath to cry out in outrage or scream in fear a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Ah, there you are Yuri; Ena was looking all over for you."

The sound and sight of her friend was certainly reassuring to the brown haired Hime-Miko. The Hime-Miko of the Sword didn't seem to be injured and was armed with the straight sword that she'd brought with her.

"Thank goodness you're not hurt Ena," she stated as she restrained the urge to embrace her old friend, "I thought that you might have had to fight Shirou-sama in all this."

"Oh I did," the black haired girl said easily as she turned to watch the battle between the two Japanese Kings, "Earlier I found King Shirou fighting against Erica, Liliana and that student of her Eminence. Since it looked like they were in real trouble Ena used Divine Possession and stepped in to save them."

"You . . . you fought against Shirou-sama?" Yuri couldn't quite believe that her friend had been so reckless, then again she'd certainly had shown some poor judgement in her targets in the past, her attempting to eliminate Erica as competition for Godou's affections was one such example.

"Oh no," Ena denied easily, "Ena tried, but she was completely outmatched. In his current state Shirou-sama isn't holding back at all, so there's absolutely no way that I can stand a chance against him. If Illya-san hadn't sent that grey giant of hers to save me King Shirou would have smashed me into paste."

What was oddly surreal was the almost happy tone in which she voiced her feelings, as thought the thought of her being killed was something to be amiably chatted about.

"Anyway, there's no more time to talk about that, it looks like things are getting serious."

Looking back to where the two Campione had been fighting Yuri saw that Godou had been joined by Luo Hao-sama and standing together they were facing the enthralled King of Steel. Her face firmed as she stiffened her resolve.

There was no mist to block her now. Clasping her hands in a vaguely pray-like manner she focused her attention upon the red haired figure. She wouldn't fail this time.


-()-


There was a stillness that to the casual onlooker might have resembled the tension of one of those old spaghetti western films that had once been the main export of Hollywood. Both sides were tensed and ready, but were waiting for their opposition to make the first move.

Shirou stood in a deceptively casual stance, but both his arms were extended to the side ready and waiting for him to produce the weapons that would leave him fully armed and as deadly as any God of War.

For his part Godou was balanced on the balls of his feet, his entire body tense as a spring and ready to burst into action. Every passing second caused the ache in his shoulder to dull that much further, all he needed was a little more time and he'd be back to full strength.

As for Luo Hao she was slowly and carefully edging sideways so as to put a bit more room between her and her sworn brother so that should she need to use her more destructive techniques then he wouldn't be caught in them.

The entire situation was a veritable picture of tension, a finely balanced set of stresses that were waiting for the tiniest little thing to set them off.

Off to the side an outcrop of concrete had been blasted out of the ground by one of the explosions caused by the detonating Noble Phantasms. Right now the end of it was cracked and weak, and under the pull of gravity those cracks were slowly spreading and growing until, with a final quiet crack, the end three inches of the outcrop dropped the two feet that separated it from the ground.

The sound it made as it hit the gravel that had once been pavement was small and weak.

But it was enough.


-()-


Luo Cuilian had been ready for the attack. It didn't matter if it was her or her sworn brother that would be the target; she was ready to defend against either possibility with all her Martial Splendour. So, when King Shirou produced another pair of weapons and shot forwards she had surged forwards to meet him without hesitation.

She knew now where she'd gone wrong before, she'd underestimated him, pure and simple. However she had not become a King and risen to the rank of Ruler of the Martial Realm by making the same mistake twice after she'd realized her error. King Shirou might be a young King, but he had proven that not only where his Authorities powerful, but that the weapons that he wielded should be treated with just as much respect and wariness as the divine powers that he had usurped.

There would be no more drawing this battle out so she could savour it more, indeed the thought that she should, or even could, do so was an insult to her ally now that she thought about it. The red haired young King was one that had managed to impress her both with his prowess in battle and the mettle of his ideology; she would no more be taking him as lightly as she had.

"Imperial Legion, answer my call. Servants of the Jade Emperor rise to meet my foe's charge."

It wasn't an Authority that she used; instead it was one of the many Daoist arts that she'd invented as she had attained higher and higher tiers of Mastery, one that no non-Campione could ever duplicate due to the sheer power requirements. In a way she supposed it could be regarded as a sort of pseudo Authority, but she'd never even considered the possibility of it ever equalling the power of the divine abilities that she'd gained from vanquishing Heretic Gods. Now though, as she faced the charging King of Steel, she couldn't help but wonder if she'd accepted defeat too easily. After all King Shirou's strange magical weapons were a match for Authorities, if that was true then didn't it also mean that other human spells might also have the same ability?

That was a thought that nestled at the back of her thoughts and brought a certain sensation of joyful anticipation with it. That challenge, that possibility . . .

However that was only a small thought that drifted about at the back of her mind, right now the vast majority of her attention was focused on the charging Campione before her.

In response to her incantation and the Qi that she was channelling into the ground that separated them the concrete bulged and rose forming itself into concrete recreations of the famed terracotta warriors, rank upon rank of them. With strange animatronic unison of action every warrior levelled their stone spears at the oncoming King.

Shirou didn't even slow down. The twin swords that he was carrying whistled through the air fast as lightning, carving into anything that blocked his path. The soldiers may have been creations of magic, but the Noble Phantasms he was holding were clearly of greater power than her spell and the force behind them was the strength and speed of a god. His progress was only slightly slowed, as was highlighted by the cloud of rock dust rapidly advancing towards them.

But that was part of her plan.

"The root of my power of Vajra, now is the time for great might that can tear apart heaven and earth!"

As she spoke the words she felt the power of her oldest and most favoured Authority flow into her. This was just in time to see the last of the ranks of the stone soldiers disappear into dust as Shirou broke through. As he did so she saw his eyes flick from her to King Godou and then back to her. She could almost see the realization form in his mind; she could see the muscles in his legs tense so as to change his course. Change it so that he could alter his target to the weaker of the two Campione he faced.

It left a bad taste in Luo Hao's mouth as she recognized the signs of the cowardly change of tactics. They were logical, she grudgingly allowed, when faced with two enemies of differing strength it made sense to deal with the weaker one first, that way the stronger would be forced to stand alone. However there was something unclean about it, about the way that the enchanted King altered his goals. It seemed like a . . . dishonourable tactic, one she was sure that her ally would not employ were he in control of himself. Once again she promised herself that the strumpet goddess that had dared force this upon her sworn ally would pay dearly before she was vanquished.

Once more employing the movement method of Jiǎo Qīng Bù the Ruler of the Martial Realm closed the distance between her and her foe thus cutting him off from her sworn brother. The two swords swung at her . . . and shattered as they were intercepted by her fists. Even as the shards dissolved into mana motes fresh swords formed in King Shirou's hands as he tried to press the attack, but these swords met the same fate as her Eminence lashed out at them.

This time there was no worry or caution in Luo Cuilian's movements. It didn't matter what weapons the younger King chose to use, with the power of the Divine Might of Vajrapani flowing through her both her fists were harder than diamonds as the power of the Authority reinforced them even as it amplified her strength. Each time he created new weapons she shattered them before they could be brought into effect. several of them proved remarkably resistant, but with her Authority, her martial prowess and her Qi all working in perfect unison and not giving her foe a chance to set himself they all fell.

Yes, she thought as King Shirou dodged a kick that cratered the ground where it struck; this was the kind of battle where she was at her best. Her opponent was a fiendishly difficult foe when he had the initiative, given his vast number of weapons as well as the skill with which he could wield them he was a fearsome foe to face. However her own skills didn't fluctuate depending upon which weapons he used and her skills were unquestionably the superior of the two. In close range combat like this the advantage was definitely he-

The beautiful martial artist was forced to step back sharply as a copy of the white Chinese falchion nearly slashed her belly open.

What? How had he done that? She'd broken the sword that he'd held, but then there'd been another one there and this time there'd been no flash of golden light such as the sort that normally accompanied their crea-

Again she was forced to dodge as an impossible attack came at her where she'd thought that she'd shattered her foe's weapon. Again he came at her and she was forced to grudgingly give ground. Her strength was unquestionably the superior of them, but his own speed surpassed hers, though she could compensate with her hard won skills, and he was using it for all it was worth.

A slight frown formed on her features as she retaliated, only to find her foe as difficult to strike as morning mist. He was adapting, and doing so far faster than she'd anticipated, whomever those blades had belonged to before clearly they had been of great skill for them to allow her enemy to begin to adjust to her skills so rapidly.

Her frown disappeared as she broke a blade and then shattered the next sword that appeared in the same hand almost immediately. She'd seen it that time, she'd seen the trick.

In a way it was very simple, but something that only one with superhuman reflexes and total familiarity with the swords could hope to manage. What he was doing was creating a second blade that followed in the wake of the first, then as soon as she broke the first he would seize the second and complete the attack. In theory it sounded simple, but in practice it was fiendishly tricky to pull off.

As one slash nicked the sleeve on her left arm the Chinese King struggled to keep a tight smile from forming on her face. It was indeed a most commendable achievement to use such a strategy, but it did have a flaw that she doubted her foe had realized yet. All she needed to do was wait for-

NOW!

As Shirou's left arm extended in a stab rather than shattering his weapon Luo Hao instead stepped to the side and grasped his wrist as it went by. From there it was a series of movements that the Ruler of the Martial Realm knew so well that she could perform them in her sleep, indeed she'd once subdued a foolish assassin that had come after her in the middle of the night without even waking up.

The King of Steel's own momentum was used to bring the arm up and around behind him even as her knee struck the back of his legs forcing his own knees to come crashing to the dirt. His free arm brought his other sword up and over his head in an attempt to stab at her from above, but this had also been anticipated and her own free hand caught his wrist and twisted with superhuman strength causing the blade to fall from spasming fingers. Before he could think of creating a new blade in either hand she performed another twist so that if he did the only thing he'd impale would be his own shoulders.

The hold was one that had served her well for decades. Under normal circumstances it was difficult to pull off and maintain due to her size and light weight, but with her Authority enhancing her strength to the point where even King Shirou's own power was suppressed. This was a simple but beautifully effective restraint that denied its victim leverage and meant they could only pit their strength against hers; this meant that as long as her Authority was active the hold was to all intents and purposes unbreakable.

"Younger brother, now!"

". . . wings. My wings will bring you curse and just desserts!"

Ah, it looked like King Godou had also realized the situation and had activated the Authority that allowed him to use the speed of a god. Excellent, right now they were some distance from each other since the short battle had none the less moved a fair distance from where it had begun, once he could use that speed he'd cover the area instantly and stab her captive somewhere nonfatal with Rule Breaker. With any luck that would let them free-

Shirou WRENCHED to one side, so suddenly and violently that it took Luo Hao completely by surprise. Those caught in this hold would not move voluntarily, the pressure it placed on their arms went straight into the nerves and joints so that any sort of struggle was immensely painful. Even Heretic Gods had been subdued by this hold, so how-

With an audible sound of tearing cartilage and muscle the King of Steel's left arm twisted violently in her grip until the arm was bending in completely the wrong way. Campione bones might be stronger than steel, but the force of Shirou's Authority enhanced strength had been enough to break the joint of his arm.

The act of self mutilation not only caught the Ruler of the Martial Realm completely off guard but also served to break the hold in a way that she'd never anticipated. With the arm bending in that way there was suddenly a small amount of 'slack' that hadn't been available to him before, enough that he was able to get close enough to slam his head backwards so that it collided with her right temple.

The blow wasn't so hard that she couldn't have handled it, what made it devastating was that it came as a complete surprise. She'd been secure in her position, certain that she'd been able to subdue the controlled King. Her focus had been upon keeping him held, not bracing herself for a blow.

So she made a mistake.

It was a small one, but it was one that a warrior of her calibre should have never made. Dazed from the blow she instinctively let go of his slack left arm in order to reach up to her ringing head. The instant she did so she realized her mistake, but by then King Shirou was already moving. There was a flash of golden light at the corner of her eyes, but she couldn't see what it was as she was suddenly yanked off her feet by the very arm that she was holding. With her enhanced strength her grip couldn't be broken, but the younger God Slayer had the advantage of weight and leverage on her.

Her thoughts still scattered from the unexpected blow to the head she reacted just an instant too slowly as she was yanked off her feet.


-()-


As soon as Godou had seen Luo Hao catch Shirou in the joint lock he'd immediately spoken the words to use the Raptor Authority. His shoulder was mostly healed now, there was still a cut there, but it wasn't nearly as deep or dangerous as it had been before. It was safe to shift to another power, and if he could use Rule Breaker on him then that might be it for this fight.

Using the Raptor Authority was never easy, but after his battles with the Chinese Campione and Sun Wukong he'd managed to develop a level of control that he'd previously lacked. It still wasn't perfect, but he thought that it would be enough for the job of jabbing his fellow Japanese Campione with the dagger he'd left.

Of course he had to make sure that Shirou didn't see the Noble Phantasm, not until after it had cut him, Illya had been very clear of that. Even as he shot forwards his hand clenched around the hilt getting ready to pull it out only at the last moment.

He didn't actually see what happened. One moment his sworn sister was there holding Shirou ready, the next there was a blur of movement, a strange cracking sound and a flash of golden light. The next instant a sharp pain was running through his right foot and he was tumbling across the ground as he completely lost control of his dash. His out of control roll was only brought up short as he crashed into one of the public benches that lined the outside of the park so pedestrians could stop to have a break.

Wincing in pain he looked down at his foot to see just what was hurting so much.

It wasn't hard to see, stabbed right through the foot were two of those old thief tools, the ones that looked like four nails welded together so that no matter how they fell one of them was always pointing up. Caltrops, that was the name. These were made of a golden material and hurt like hell. It was strange, in the past he'd been mauled by animated stone tigers that had hurt less.

Shaking his head to get rid of the useless thoughts he reached down and yanked the implements out of his flesh. Each time brought a wince of pain to his face, but he ignored that as he stubbornly refused to cry out. Gingerly, getting to his feet he steadied himself with the same bench that had arrested his tumbling, regaining his feet Godou quickly took stock of the situation. The dagger was still in its sheath, so there was no chance that it'd been seen, that was something at least. He'd lost the Raptor Authority though, that had been dispelled as soon as he'd come crashing down. The only upside was that since it had been lost so soon after he'd called on it it looked like he wouldn't be suffering from any heart pains.

Limping from the unexpectedly harsh pain the seventh Campione turned round to see what was going on with the other two.

From the looks of things the advantage had once more shifted to the enthralled King of Steel. Luo Hao was still on the ground, but Shirou had managed to regain his feet and was using it to full effect. Even though his left arm was hanging limply from his side his right hand had produced a sword with which he was viciously hacking away at the Ruler of the Martial Realm. She was dodging with a kind of graceful ease that belied her position in the dirt, but despite that she was having a hard time regaining her feet. Each time she tried her enemy would swing at her and she'd be forced to roll or shift to avoid the blade.

Oh, this wouldn't last long, of that Godou was certain. Her disadvantage was a temporary thing only, but even so there was always the chance that luck would strike at the worst time.

Gingerly taking a step forwards Godou winced as a fresh jab of pain stabbed up from his foot. Damn it, what had those wretched golden caltrops done to him? Even getting hit by Luo Hao's shockwaves hadn't hurt this much. Yet even as he tried to press on each step caused another wince no matter how he tried to suppress it.

This wasn't going to work; as he was he could barely manage more than a fast hobble. Maybe he shouldn't have switched to the Raptor since the healing aspects of the Camel would have been useful right now. He needed to heal or he needed to move, either would be good, though both would be better. He needed . . .

The words rose up in his mind like some ancient leviathan reaching for the surface of the sea; they were there on his tongue along with the knowledge that power would answer his call if he spoke them.

"O golden sun, O racing hooves, O chariot that traces the path of the skies. Come to me for battle and victory, come to me that all shall fall before the brilliant glory of the charging sun."

Even as he said the words the seventh Campione took a step forward, however rather than coming down on concrete and gravel his foot came down on the metal and wood of a magnificent golden chariot that had suddenly manifested before him. And this was a chariot that Godou recognized, how could he not? It had nearly killed him only the day before yesterday after all. So . . . this was the Authority that he'd gained from Apollo.

The two golden and silver horses that were yoked before the vehicle snorted and pawed at the earth, about them the ground gently smoked as their hooves began to burn their prints into the concrete on which they stood.

He had no idea how to use this Authority, no idea how to drive a chariot, but for some reason Godou's hands reached for the reins that waited for him and grasped them. Yes, this felt right, as though it were something that was meant for him. The same instincts that had let him know how to use his other usurped abilities in the past welled up as his arms flicked the reins and set the divine horses to moving.

The beasts picked up speed quickly, and before long the golden chariot was charging along as fast as a car on the motorway. In front of him Godou could see his two fellow Campione locked in combat. His sworn sister was in a crouch and seemed ready to dodge any attack sent her way, Shirou was standing over her the longsword in his hand held ready to lash out the instant she made a move. It was the kind of standoff where the first to do anything would find themselves at a disadvantage.

Time to break that stalemate.

As the huge wheels of the Shining Chariot thundered across the distance separating them a small part of the young Kusanagi's mind noted that his foot wasn't hurting as badly as it had before.


-()-


Luo Hao had been growing increasingly frustrated as she tried to regain her footing but failed.

For all its lack of elegance or sophistication Shirou's strategy had the virtues of simplicity and functionality working for it. Even with only one arm in fighting form he was still able to swing the longsword that he held with sufficient speed and strength that she couldn't find that critical second or two that she needed to get up. Indeed in order to evade the sword swings she was being forced to twist and writhe upon the ground like some sort of frantic snake.

King Shirou was going to be . . . chastised for this, the Chinese Campione decided. She was well aware that he wasn't operating under his own will at this time, but she would still make it a point to demonstrate her displeasure at the way she had been treated as soon as they had secured his freedom.

And she was also going to make sure that that wretched Heretic Goddess also suffered a suitable penance for this before she was vanquished.

Now wasn't the time for such thoughts though, there would be plenty of time for that as soon as her fellow King had been subdued and freed from his enslavement. At the moment the main concern was escaping this unsightly position.

There!

She saw her opportunity and moved in the same instant. His sword blow had been slightly overextended, not by much, but that small amount was enough. Her fist lashed out to strike the blade and the eighth Campione instinctively withdrew it from her reach. In that spilt moment while the sword was withdrawn Luo Hao swung her legs and used their centrifugal force to right herself into a crouch.

Then she froze as she saw that King Shirou had realized his mistake and taken the only option available to him that could counter her. Rather than try to strike out once more he instead held the blade ready to take advantage of her next move. If she were to rise then her legs would be vulnerable, if she tried to dodge then one of her sides would be open. It was certainly within her skills to be able to defend against such an attack, even if it was to an opening, but there was always the chance that he'd use one of his other Authorities to enhance the attack in some unexpected way. With that in mind the prudent course of action was to wait for him to commit himself to some course of action and then make her own move.

They stayed like that for a frozen instant, each of them tense as a coiled spring, waiting for the other to make the move that would restart the battle.

Then King Godou arrived.

The Shining Chariot bore down upon them like an avalanche of falling stars, heat and sound seeming to swallow the world as it drew nearer.

In the face of such an oncoming threat both of the frozen combatants took the same action and leapt backwards so as to let the searing vehicle pass between them rather than run them down. Though both moved quickly the chariot swerved to follow the King of Steel and not even his Authority enhanced agility was enough to get him completely out of the reach of the aura of fire that surrounded Godou's new Authority. Even as the chariot pulled away the right sleeve of the purple tunic that he wore began to smoulder as though it had only just managed to avoid catching fire.

Leaving a trail of red hot molten pavement behind it the divine vehicle and the godly beasts that drew it began a wide arc as they began to come around again. Had the chariot been drawn by mortal creatures the turn would have been time consuming, enough that their target might have escaped, but this vehicle wasn't yoked to beings of mere mortal flesh and blood. The wheels seemed to roar as the pair of golden stallions dragged themselves around in a turn so tight and fast that for a moment it seemed as though the momentum would overturn the chariot they drew. It was a move performed in dimensions and at speeds that the most advanced racing vehicles of the modern age would not have dreamt of trying to match. In barely the space of three second Godou's Authority had come about and was once more bearing down on his fellow Japanese King.

Her Eminence wasn't too sure of what her sworn brother intended. A Campione might be durable beyond human capability, but even so if King Shirou were trampled and run over by that burning juggernaut then even the vitality of a Devil King might not be enough to save his life. Did he plan to swerve at the last moment so as to only deliver a glancing blow? Whatever the case might be she'd have to place her trust in the young Rakshasa Raja that had so impressed her with his determination and ingenuity, she tensed herself to be ready to lend her aid if needed.

However she was taken completely by surprise as the red haired Campione rather than trying to dodge instead charged directly at the oncoming Authority. For a brief moment even the experienced God Slayer found herself stunned at the seeming insanity of the action, then her ears, enhanced by a subconscious flow of Qi as were all her other senses, heard the words being spoken by the enthralled King as he closed with his apparent doom.

"Invincible and unbreakable, none may stand before the champion of all! My armour will not yield, my strength shall not fail, all glory shall be mine, all honour in my grasp, alone I stand before all that follow behind me!"

As the words were spoken the sword in his hand disappeared, but rather than breaking into the golden motes of energy that had characterized the disappearances of his earlier broken weapons this time it was as though the blade crumbled into a fine metal sand that was carried off by a wind that only it could feel.

Even as the streams of steel grey dust faded into the wind the armour began to appear upon King Shirou.

The armour was close and form fitting but in no way thin or weak, it was worked to match the curves and lines of the body, to give the impression of musculature beneath it, but slightly increased in scale to give the impression that the one wearing it was somewhat larger than life. Overlapping scales of armour made up the suit and covered every inch of the King of Steel's body. In some vague way it was of similar design to the huge armoured form of the Titan Knight that her ally had become to annihilate the monster that the intruders to his Feast had become. Yes, it was as though both had a similar origin, but each had taken a different path which had led to the differences between them.

The primary difference was while the huge armoured form had been a combination of pristine white and polished steel grey this armour was instead shining gold with enamelled decorations of royal blue and polished silver adding accent to the design. Thick looking gauntlets and elaborate pauldrons were composed of several overlapping plates that flared out to grant the illusion of greater size. In the case of the gauntlets Luo Hao immediately saw that they could be used as sword breakers and that while the shoulder coverings might look needlessly ornamental they were designed to grant greater protection and make cuts to the neck much more difficult. Further panels of overlapping armour protected the sides of his upper legs while a third ran down from his belt to just above his knees.

The helmet was an awesome sight, covering every inch of King Shirou's head with the face plate being more of a mask than a helm. The smooth face of metal had no features upon it and curved to match the shape of the head beneath it. The only thing that broke the silver finish of it was a single shallow V slit at eye level. Had this been a mere mortal armour the Ruler of the Martial Realm doubted that that small opening would allow enough of a field of vision, but since this was an Authority she had no doubt that its user could see as freely as if they wore no helmet at all.

The metal mask was framed by a helm that came down to cover the ears, cheeks and sides of the jaw in a similar manner to the helm worn by the Titan Knight, but rather than the hooked beak-like covering of the gigantic armour the whole face of the helm was surrounded by a series of overlapping metal scales, each of the same golden metal, that radiated backwards from the face. For some reason the design put her in mind of the mane of a lion forged from gold.

As a final touch a long white cape fluttered from where it was fastened to the pauldrons and the back of the armour's neck. It flapped in the wind, proud as any banner, displaying the bold blue of its inner lining as its wearer charged forwards fearlessly. The entire armour seemed to radiate an aura of . . . grandeur, of magnificence. It seemed to roar to the world; 'I am a hero and the rest of you are all mere support characters in MY legend!' The Ruler of the Martial Realm blinked, and the spell of the armour's aura was broken.

That was an interesting effect, and it was remarkable that its presence was enough to take in one such as her, one that stood at the peak of the world, even if it had only been for an instant. What was of greater import was what properties this Authority possessed that its user would be charging straight at the oncoming chariot.

As the armoured King and the shining Authority came crashing together two things struck her; the first was that the eighth Campione's left arm seemed to be completely healed since rather than hanging limply at his side it was now raised with the fist clenched and ready for combat. The second was that contrary to her expectations the armour wasn't using some ability to attack or avoid the shining solar Authority at the last instant.

An almost visible shockwave rippled out as the two God Slayers collided. Even with her stance firmed in preparation for some sort of detonation the Chinese Campione was still taken by surprise at the sheer force that struck her sending her stumbling back a few paces before she regained her footing. Behind her she heard a crash as one of the trees, already unsteady due to being too near to one of the earlier battles, gave up the ghost and came tumbling down. Outcries of shock and alarm sounded from the Servants of King Godou and King Shirou as the shockwave reached them, but she ignored them as her attention remained riveted upon the sight before her.

After the chariot's horses had collided with King Shirou there had been that shockwave, and then the divine beasts and the solar vehicle had continued on their charge. On seeing this Luo Hao had thought that whatever the King of Steel had attempted had failed, at least she'd thought that until her eyes tracked the progress of the Shining Chariot and seen an impossible sight.

Rather than having been trampled under King Shirou stood in front of the twin solar stallions with one hand forcefully grasping each of their heads. His stance was of one that was bracing himself to push against some great weight, and though he was being pushed before the divine horses to the point that his feet were leaving grooves in the ground he was none the less refusing to be trampled under.

Then, to her further astonishment, she saw the chariot start to slow and then come to a stop as the horses strained against the figure before them but were unable to overcome him. It wasn't the strength that amazed her; in terms of pure physical force she was well aware that she could do something similar with the great golden avatars that manifested when she fully employed her first Authority. No, what amazed her was the sheer durability that the armoured form of her enthralled ally was demonstrating by stopping the charging chariot through pure physical effort.

Where his gauntleted hands were holding the stallion's heads thin streams of smoke were rising even though the metal didn't seem to be succumbing to their heat. About them the grass caught fire and the pavement melted into a molten mass of bubbling tar and glowing rocks. The very concrete beneath King Shirou's feet caved in from the pressures placed upon it. And yet through this all the King of Steel neither flinched nor drew back, instead he continued to strain against the beasts, continued to push against them until slowly, oh so slowly, they were forced to take a step back as he advanced a slow but deliberate step.

From his place in the car of the chariot King Godou had a poleaxed expression on his face as though he couldn't quite believe what it was that he was seeing. He blinked and shook his head slightly as he seemed to regain his senses, but by then it was too late.

With a sudden and violent heave to the side King Shirou sent the two divine beasts stumbling and then crashing over as they were pulled from their feet by his sudden action. As they tumbled down their harnesses and their weight dragged the chariot along with them. Her sworn brother only had time for a startled exclamation of surprise before he was thrown out of its car as the vehicle tipped over.

The Authority hadn't been completely overturned; instead it now rested in the molten mire that it had created with its own heat, one wheel flat against the melting pavement while the other was up in the air. The chariot wasn't damaged, but for the moment it was definitely out of commission.

With slow deliberate movements the armoured form of the King of Steel started to stride around the overturned vehicle and head straight towards her sworn brother.


-()-


Illya couldn't help but feel an icy shiver run down her spine as she watched her beloved adopted brother not only physically stop an Authority but also actually overturn it.

She knew full well the power of that particular armour; after all it had been her that had helped Shirou in testing it to get a better idea as to its abilities. The Authority was almost akin to Shirou donning an enhanced version of her Berserker's God Hand, at least as far as the defensive aspects of the armour went. Not a single one of her spells was able to so much as scratch the gleaming sheen of the Armour of the Champion, not even when she used her Wishcraft to overcharge one of the spells to the point where even Caster would have given it a nod of approval.

Of course she was well aware that the power of an Authority would eclipse any of her own efforts, but even so she estimated her own powers to be on par with a low level Caster now, certainly at a level that few mortal mages ever achieved. With that amount of power available to her while she might not match the power of a divinity she was fairly sure she could at least partly comprehend the reaches of their strength.

She'd also always found something about that armour to be slightly intimidating. Despite its heroic appearance as a champion clad in gold there were some touches that set her on edge. It was the gauntlets and boots, they were the problem, they looked entirely too much like the ones that the corrupted version of Saber had worn despite their golden gleam and brilliant edgings. It made her wonder whether or not the appearance of the armour was somehow influenced by Shirou's memories of his Servant.

Whatever the case might be though the armour that Shirou could summon up was durable enough that it could withstand A rank level Noble Phantasms without incurring any significant damage. When you took that level of durability and combined it with the strength of Dragon Slaying Hero . . .

Her thoughts were interrupted as the blurred form of Luo Hao cannoned into the armoured form of Illya's adopted brother with a sound like two tanks running into each other at maximum speed.

It was almost like when Shirou had collided with the chariot, there was another shockwave, perhaps a bit smaller but none the less powerful, and Shirou was sent stumbling back. The Chinese Campione didn't let up though and before her target could regain his balance her delicate looking fist slammed into him again. Once more a shockwave rippled across the battlefield and Illya winced as it washed over her.

Her Eminence certainly didn't seem to be holding back at all.

Shaking her head to clear it of the ringing from the shockwaves the young Einzbern heir tried to think of something she could do. Trying to enter the battle, even if she was using her puppet, was a lost cause at this point. Things had escalated to the point where even her false Servant would be immediately slaughtered if it entered the fray. She needed to do something else, something useful.

As if in answer to her thoughts another tree toppled over to reveal the forms of Yuri and Ena sheltering from the shockwaves some distance off. They weren't too distant, and it was only the work of a moment for her puppet Berserker to pick her up and carry her over to them.

"Hey Illya-chan," the Hime-Miko of the sword greeted her with a cheerfulness that seemed to be at odds with the gravity of the situation. "Your brother is really putting up a big fight, I honestly didn't think that anyone could stand up to Godou and Luo Hao-sama like this, but he's managing it. That's really impressive."

For a moment the snow haired girl could only stare at the physically older girl in disbelief. She remembered how Shirou had mentioned that when she'd been partially assimilated into the god sword Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi she'd been similarly unworried despite the graveness of her predicament. Maybe it was just some character trait.

Dismissing the odd thought from her mind Illya turned to Mariya Yuri and focused on the reason why she'd come over to them.

"Have you been able to use your Spirit Vision to identify the origin of Shirou's Authorities?" She asked, wincing slightly as another shockwave rolled over them.

"I-I've been able to identify Perseus." the brown haired Hime-Miko answered as she clutched at the fallen tree they were all using for shelter.

"Good, but that's not the one we need," Illya had to shout as the sound of yet another falling tree nearly drowned her voice out. "Mordred's the one you've got to find, he's the source of two of Onii-chan's strongest Authorities. If we can find them then we can seal at least one of them if he uses it."

Yet another shockwave rolled over them, this one almost as strong at the first one had been. The Einzbern heir risked a look over the fallen tree and saw that her adopted brother was still standing and fighting against the Chinese Campione despite the devastating blows being used on him.

"Maybe that should be three of his strongest." She muttered to herself.


-()-


Luo Hao was having the time of her life.

She was also bleeding from the first serious wound that she'd received for more than half a century.

When she'd first struck her armoured foe she'd been uncertain that the protection he wore would be enough to defend him from her blow. She knew that King Shirou had entrusted her to end his life if it appeared to be necessary, but that didn't mean that the Ruler of the Martial Realm was in any way eager to do so. she still believed that her and her sworn brother, or even her alone, were sufficient to subdue the ensorcelled King, but when she'd seen him advancing on the downed form of Kusanagi Godou her drive to protect her new younger brother had briefly overridden her normal restraint.

Not that it had really mattered in the end, even though she'd struck him with enough force to bring down virtually any manmade structure all it had done was send the King of Steel stumbling back a few steps. He'd recovered swiftly though and had come at her again, this time wielding a single broadsword of simple but elegant design.

Almost immediately she'd realized that this battle was not like the one they had previously fought. Before her Martial Arts mastery had granted her the advantage at close range since a single blow or hold from her was sufficient to bring down even one of her fellow God Slayers when backed by her Authority of strength. King Shirou had been able to offset this advantage by the use of his seemingly unending weapons as well as his cunning innovations, but ultimately the advantage had been hers. However with that Authority now about him that advantage was gone, indeed one could say the advantage was now King Shirou's.

With the armour that he wore being able to endure her blows the eighth Campione no longer had to focus on evasion, but could devote himself to using the full advantages of his speed and strength to cut his foe down. Also with his strength increased to the point where he'd been able to overturn the chariot Authority of King Godou Luo Cuilian was quite certain that attempting to go for throws and hold would be a fool's errand, meaning that another avenue was closed to her.

And on top of it all was the skill with which he was wielding his weapon. As she had been forced to dodge the blade she'd been reminded of how the King's sister had said that he could duplicate the skills of the weapon's previous owner. If that was the case then whoever had once wielded that sword had been a warrior with few peers. Though the skill was workman-like and utilitarian it was beyond doubt masterful as well, precise and controlled.

She'd learnt that when she'd moved a fraction too slowly and the blade had scored a slice along her lower left ribcage. The enhanced bones of a Campione had kept the blow from being any deeper, but regardless it was still the gravest wound that she'd suffered in more than fifty years.

And yet despite it all a smile of pure exhilaration graced her lips.

This . . . this was what she'd wanted. To not merely face a challenge but to face an actual threat. This was a foe that she could hit.

It was oddly childish in a way, but that was the thought that sprung out at her the most as she sidestepped the swings of the blade and struck back with diamond hard fists. This was the first time in nearly a century that she was facing a foe that she could strike with all her strength and not immediately subdue. Oh, she'd faced foes like King Godou that could evade her blows or somehow escape her, but it was so very rare for her to meet an opponent that would endure her blows and retaliate. And not only that, she was also experiencing the joys of the full use of her Martial Arts, too often any foe she faced would crumble before them almost as readily as they would before her Authorities. Indeed her recent battle with her newly sworn brother had been one of the most prolonged battles that she'd been able to use her skills for the last few decades.

For now the Ruler of the Martial Realm had forgotten about her exalted rank or her prized reputation, all that mattered to her was the thrill of battle at this very instant.

Of course that wasn't to say that she'd allowed herself to become drunk upon the wine of war lust, though her blood was singing and her heart was thundering she was still a warrior almost without peer and her mind remained fixed not upon the battle itself but the victory beyond it. The problem was that that victory didn't seem to be easy to attain.

If she could get some room then she'd be able to bring down the full power of her Authority of Strength upon her foe, she was certain that despite the strength of his armour even it wouldn't be able to fully stand up to the force of her two gigantic golden Benevolent Kings. The problem was that since she'd engaged him in close combat in order to stop him she was going to have to make some room so that she'd have both the space and the time needed to access the higher levels of the Divine Might of Vajrapani. Initially Luo Cuilian had thought to create that room by the simple expedient of simply striking her foe hard enough to send him flying. Unfortunately there seemed to be some aspect of the armour that allowed it to absorb the force of her blows to the point where they merely caused him to stumble rather than be sent cart wheeling away.

Truly King Shirou was proving to be a most difficult foe to deal with. Still there had to be-

Her thoughts were cut off as a figure appeared behind her ensorcelled opponent. That gave her pause, though only slightly since she knew better than to hesitate in the face of an enemy of this calibre. King Godou? How had he managed to get so close without her detecting him?

It dawned on the Ruler of the Martial Realm that as she had fought with the eighth Campione her focus had continually narrowed until it had been centred solely upon the battle between her and the King of Steel. It was a technique that allowed her to fight with her full skill but which also meant that she lost track of the more 'minor' elements about her. Since her sworn brother hadn't been an enemy or a danger he'd slipped out of her notice.

But what was he doing?


-()-


Kusanagi Godou took a deep breath as he prepared himself. This was a terrible gamble he was taking, if his guess proved wrong then at best he'd be seriously wounded and at worst he might find himself dead. Still he was sure that he was right, he knew it in his guts, and his guts rarely let him down.

He'd noticed something about the way that Shirou was fighting, at first it had been only a suspicion, but as soon as he'd seen the enthralled God Slayer once more engage Luo Hao in combat he'd been sure that it was right.

During their preparations for this fight his sworn older sister had mentioned that being controlled might well affect how effective the victim was in combat. They might be able to push themselves further than they would if they were operating under their own will, but at the same time their ability for independent thought or innovation might be somewhat encumbered.

Shirou had already proven that his skills hadn't apparently faltered by any noticeable degree, nor had his innovation given some of the surprises that he'd managed to pull on them. However there did seem to be one flaw, one thing that had struck the seventh Campione. It looked as though while he could focus on all his foes at once when he wasn't fighting them as soon as he engaged one himself then Shirou would focus on that one to the exclusion of all the others. The incident just now was an excellent example; he'd been focused on Godou as his enemy and as such hadn't noticed Luo Hao until she literally cannoned into him. Now he was totally focused on her and hadn't made any move towards Godou even though he'd still been a bit dazed from the overturning of his chariot.

And he hadn't reacted when the young Kusanagi had shaken off the daze and gotten once more to his feet. He hadn't even reacted when Godou had tried to test his theory by activating his Bull Authority to see if it would draw any attention from the controlled Campione. Even as he slowly drew closer neither of the two fighters seemed to pay him any attention.

The fight itself was . . . intimidating to say the least. Godou fully acknowledged Luo Hao as quite possibly the most powerful foe that he'd ever had to face, even more so than Sun Wukong. Facing her in combat when she was going all out had been the subject of more than a couple unpleasant dreams that he'd had to deal with over the past few weeks. Yet here she was going up against Shirou with what seemed to be her full power and yet he was matching her.

Not that he was going to let that stop him though.

He waited, waited for the right moment, for the opportunity that would feel right, that his instincts would tell him to take.

Not there.

Not that one either.

Close, but not right

There!

The Bull Authority didn't impart agility on the level of the Raptor or the Camel, but the fact that the Authority granted superhuman strength to all his muscles did mean that while using it Godou was a good deal faster than he was under normal circumstances. It had been that kind of speed that had let him use the Authority as well as he had in the past.

Now that extra speed served him well as he managed to grab Shirou from behind before he could register his presence.

It was a bit more complicated than it sounded, mainly because he'd been aiming to seize his fellow King by his wrists. The idea was pretty simple, stop Shirou from using his swords and then throw him as far as he could, after that . . . well he was hoping that his sworn sister could bring out those huge golden statues that she'd used to fight him. Apart from that, well he'd make it up as he went along. Right now the important thing was to break the deadlock that had once more emerged between the other two Kings.

It all happened so fast that he almost missed it altogether. He didn't try to think about it, under these circumstances thoughts would get in the way, there was only time for action.

He grabbed Shirou from behind, his hands grasping his arms just below the elbows. The eighth Campione reacted immediately to the new threat, but he wasn't able to spin or strike out because Godou had a good grip on him. Both the armour and his enhancement Authority might be increasing his strength, but the Bull Authority granted power on a level needed to counter the foe and since it was dealing with the King of Steel in his current state the Authority was more than generous in the strength it was bestowing.

His arms locked away from his captor Shirou attempted to break free by jerking his head backwards in an effort to slam the back of his helmet against Godou's head.

The seventh Campione dealt with that by slamming his own head right into the oncoming helmet with as much force as he could manage.

Stars exploded in his face and there was a distinct ringing in his ears, however despite that he was able to hang onto his captive. Shirou couldn't have fared much better, having been less prepared for the retaliatory hit, because his body slumped for just a second as his helmet audibly rang like a bell that had just been struck.

That was all the opportunity that he needed though. With a heave that used every ounce of strength he could manage he lifted the armoured figure over his head and threw. He might not know where he was throwing him since the young Kusanagi's head was still ringing, but that didn't matter. As long as wherever it was was away from here then that would be enough.

As the weight of the armoured God Slayer left his hands Godou lost his balance to a combination of the sudden shift of weight and to the sudden dizziness from the clash his head had just taken part in, and tipped forwards into a stumble.

That stumble was arrested as a hand caught his shoulder and steadied him

"I find myself unsure of how to react to this," the beautiful bell-like voice of his sworn sister broke through the ringing in his head that was slowly starting to fade. "On the one part I am most vexed with you my little brother, it was most impolite and churlish of you to enter that battle in such a manner. This Luo Cuilian has no need of others taking her foes by surprise in order to gain victory. With my valour and by martial supremacy I shall conquer all that stand before me."

It was quite remarkable how fast naked terror could cause one's mind to clear. As sudden visions of the Chinese Campione forcing him through various tortuous training routines in order to 'discipline' him marched through his head he frantically cast about for some sort of excuse or justification. Lu Yinghua had shared several of his own experiences under his teachers 'masterful' guidance, the descriptions had been enough to give Godou unpleasant dreams about being chased by giant tigers as he was forced to carry a huge boulder. He'd woken up to find that he was locked in mortal combat with his own bed sheets.

However even as he opened his mouth to defend himself Luo Hao continued.

"Still, on the other part you have succeeded in extricating me from the impasse in which I had found myself. Though in time my flawless skills would have ensured my victory your interference has provided an . . . expedient resolution to the deadlock."

The beautiful martial artist cast a reproachful look at her sworn brother as she attempted to do something about her now dishevelled and battle worn appearance. It was something of a futile gesture though; dust, blood and burns had reduced her once immaculate robes to a very sorry state. They were intact so their wearer's modesty was preserved, but that was about the only good thing that could be said in their favour. Rather than the fine garments that they had once been now they were more like a tattered standard in the midst of the battlefield.

"Nee-san, I-"

Godou's eyes had been on her face, so it wasn't anything she said that cut him off. It was the slight paling of her skin, the sudden widening of her eyes, anything that was able to get that kind of reaction out of the supremely confident Campione was not something that could be taken lightly and he damned well knew it.

"Massive timber splitting mountains, producing great force! Stacking multitudes of golden bells, producing impenetrable iron cloth!"

Even as the first words were spoken he could see the two huge golden statues of the Benevolent Kings forming from the white flames that emerged from her shoulders, each one towering more than ten metres in height. Even as they formed they were already stepping forwards and raising their arms to shield themselves. Godou had only a brief instant to wonder what they were doing before he heard the sound.

The loud metallic thundering put him oddly in mind of hail rattling off a tin roof, though what that could mean escaped him, at least until he spun around to see the source of the noise.

Standing shoulder to shoulder the two huge golden figures were kneeling down ii front of where he and Luo Cuilian were standing. For a moment he couldn't understand what it was that was making the noise, then he saw something flash by and imbed itself into the ground just a few feet away from him.

A sword.

He stood there for a few seconds just looking at it in a sort of stunned stupefaction, then his eyes widened as the connections were made in his mind and he turned to stare at where the avatars of his sworn sister's Authority were kneeling. Where they were defending them from the apparent rain of swords.

"Ah, this is not so serious an attack as I feared it might be," The Ruler of the Martial Realm sounded so unruffled that it stood in almost surreal contrast to the situation. "When I saw all the weapons that King Shirou had launched at us I thought that they might all detonate as those weapons with which he armed his servants earlier did. Fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. His sister mentioned that he had yet to perfect the art of . . . 'Breaking' the weapons, it would seem that even under the control of that goddess he cannot launch them in such a state. A most fortuitous development for us."

As the seventh Campione simply stared at her the sound of the blades striking the golden bodies of the statues seemed to trail off like rain that was ending. At an imperious gesture from Luo Hao the statues stood and moved aside. As they did so Godou was struck by their appearance, they weren't severely damaged but they did look as though they'd received dozens of shallow cuts. These were the giants that had been able to protect her Eminence from the full power of his Stallion Authority, granted doing so had left them melted ruins, but even so they had been able to absorb the power of the Authority with the most firepower that he possessed. That they'd still been so scratched up was . . . daunting.

The young Kusanagi stepped forwards, being careful to stay near the golden colossi in case he had to duck for cover, his eyes tracked back and forth, trying to find where the enthralled Campione was. He needed to know where they'd have to get to, how far away he was so-

A blue comet screamed across the battlefield with a sound like the tearing of the very air. It moved fast, so fast that it was only due to his experience tracking the attacks of Heretic Gods that Godou was able to see it as anything other than an afterimage. He barely had time to register the oncoming projectile before it slammed into the left shoulder of the open mouthed benevolent king.

The giant's form disappeared in an eruption of blue fire as it was sent stumbling backwards. He heard an exclamation of surprise from Luo Hao but he didn't turn, instead his eyes fixed on the armoured form of Shirou where he stood near the river. The King of Steel's golden armour gleamed in the lights of the bridge behind him and his cape flapped in the breeze that had sprung up, he held a huge black bow in his left hand and his right was still in the posture of having released the arrow.

Behind him there was a loud crash and the seventh Campione instinctively spun round to see what had caused it.

It was an arm.

That great explosion of blue fire had actually blown the left arm of the giant completely off. Just one arrow had done that? Then what if . . .

Godou didn't even pause to think; as soon as the idea materialized in his mind he simply reacted. In one movement he was spinning in place to face Shirou once more, his arms raised above him as he focused on the bridge behind him.

"The Boar shall ravage you! The Boar shall exterminate you!"

It was one of the shorter incantations that allowed him to access what was arguably his most violent Authority, and as soon as he spoke the first word the enormous divine beast materialized above him. The target of course wasn't Shirou himself, since one of the conditions for the use of the Boar was that its target had to be a large structure or enemy. However, since it destroyed anything that got in its way that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

From above him he could feel the tension as the gigantic beast strained to unleash its power; the pavement around his feet buckled and caved in into two small craters as the weight of the Boar passed through him even though he couldn't feel it. Before him he saw an arrow materialize in Shirou's armoured hand as he notched it to the black bow.

"HHHAAAHHH!"

With a wordless cry of effort Godou brought his arms down and sent the Boar on its charge. The incarnation of a God seemed to share in his determination because even as the ground caved in about its trotters as it charged forwards it released a thunderous roar. The roar was so loud it rippled across the battlefield like a physical force, a magnified version of the shockwaves that had rocked it earlier.

Before the creature the King of Steel stood as unmoving as a rock before a breeze. His cape was blown back behind him, but that was the only indication that he'd even experienced the shockwave of the Boar's roar. With a single calm movement he drew the arrow and released it.

The blue comet screamed through the air once more, but this time there seemed to be something less potent about it, as though some part of its vitality was missing. This observation was borne out as the arrow struck the beast on the forehead and exploded, this time though the eruption was smaller and more compact. There was bright light and a loud bang, but compared to the explosion that had torn the arm from Luo Hao's golden giant it was little more than a pale imitation. It glanced off the hide of the great divine beast like rain splashing off armour plating.

But it did have one small effect; the Boar paused for a brief second as it shook its huge head in order to clear its eyes and dispel the ringing in its ears. It was a small movement, little more significant than the swatting of an insect that was bothersome, but it had been enough.

As the bow faded from existence another sword appeared in Shirou's grip, but that blade was only there for an instant before it broke apart into the same metal dust as it had once before in the course of this battle. Godou's eyes widened in realization as despite the distance separating them he still managed to hear the spoken words.

"I am Steel, Steel that endures, Steel that triumphs, Steel that is invincible. My might is beyond any, my courage unshakeable, my mettle unequalled. I am the earth that has been refined into its ultimate form, I am Steel."

The seventh Campione had witnessed the transformation once before, at the Feast of Kings when the host had destroyed the monster that the inhuman intruders had become. But this time he wasn't standing behind the armoured giant, this time he was the target of its aggression.

The sense of being overwhelmed, of being faced by something against which he stood no chance, hit him almost like a physical force. In some ways it was even worse than the presence that Verethragna had used against him in their battle, his aura had been overwhelming but it hadn't had this strange mix of disdain and rage mixed into it. Had any normal human been faced with this presence directed at them then blind terror and hopelessness would have been the only possible responses.

However Godou was a Campione, a God Slayer, and that meant that he was as far from normal as it was possible to get while still human.

With a roar of defiance the Boar thundered forwards its huge mass easily greater than the great knight that it was attacking by nearly thrice. Yet despite a creature proportionately the same size as a rhino bearing down upon him the only actions that the King of Steel took was to extend his arms and manifest the same huge sword and shield that he'd wielded at the Feast.

Letting loose a final roar the divine beast lowered its head and put on a final burst of speed as it moved to impale the huge knight upon its tusks.

Then . . . Godou could only stare in horrified awe as he watched the scene unwind before his eyes.

At the last second, just before the Boar was upon him, the eight metre tall metal titan dove to the side going into a roll that brought him up with one knee down and one foot planted. His left arm was held with the shield across his chest and acting as a brace for the sword that was held horizontally across him, edge on with the blade extended to the side.

The seventh Campione only had a split second to wonder what Shirou was doing before he saw what was intended. The Boar, unable to change its course enough in the split second available, had literally run into the extended sword. The huge divine beast let out a shrill squeal as the blade cut into it, but that was cut off as its weight and momentum forced it on even as the sword sliced a huge wound from its mouth across its body and all the way down to its tail. Crimson blood that seemed to glow with an internal light exploded into the air in a great surging gush as the Boar lost its footing and came crashing down in a heap. Muscles were torn and organs sliced, though the beast's divine vitality preserved its life it was still crippled, unable to move.

In a single motion that had some kind of dreadful authority to it the huge form of the Titan Knight stood up, turned and brought his sword down in an massive overhead swing that struck the neck of the helpless Boar.

The sound was beyond description. The divine hide of the incarnated Authority resisted for a brief moment, then yielded as the blade of the huge sword tore through flesh and bone before cutting into the ruined pavement beneath. As the force of the blow cracked open the earth into a short fissure the headless form of the Boar dissolved into crimson motes of light that in turn faded away.

"Remarkable," the voice at his side jolted Godou from the shocked daze that he'd fallen into. Certainly in the past his divine beast had been defeated, but never had the defeat been so . . . violently final. Had Luo Hao not spoke he might well have remained in his stunned stupor until the Titan Knight had made a move and brought him out of it. "I was aware that King Shirou possessed a powerful Authority, but I had never expected it to be on such a magnificent level. Defeating it may well require quite an expenditure of effort upon my part, even with my peerless martial skills."

And once more there was that absolute confidence, that absolute certainty that her victory was the only possible outcome. Idly Godou remembered how at the Feast she'd said that what she sought was defeat, how on Earth did that desire exist alongside her apparently unshakable confidence in her victory?

"Still in this case I may accept some aid from you, my younger brother, in order to ensure the swiftness of my victory," She continued giving him a look that perfectly suited an older sister deciding to indulge her younger sibling's wish to aid her in some task, even though no such aid was needed. "What we shall do is-"

No further discussion was possible though, because at that instant the huge form of the armoured giant that Shirou had become came thundering towards them.

Nothing so huge should have been able to move that fast, the thought filled Godou's mind even as the King of Steel bore down on them. They had been separated by a distance of a good hundred metres or so, yet the speed with which the huge armoured form covered that space was unreal. The ground caved in around each footstep as the concrete failed to endure the force of each step, but even so the Titan Knight was little more than a blur as he hurtled toward them.

The night exploded into a shower of sparks as the closed mouthed Benevolent King stepped forward to meet the charge. The five metre long broadsword slammed into the great golden fist of the living statue that stood taller even than the armoured giant. Thunder echoed across the battlefield as the one armed member of the pair tried to slam its own fist into Shirou's side, its movements seemingly unimpaired by the loss of an arm, only for the blow to be blocked as the shield intercepted it.

Godou found himself stumbling backwards, trying to put some space between himself and the spot that seemed to have become something of a cross between a storm and an apocalypse. Flashes of sparks as bright as any lightning lit up the dark while the thunder of clashing metal deafened the ears. Off to the side he could see Luo Cuilian standing rock solid as her gestures directed the movements of her gigantic divine puppets.

Once he'd been able to get far enough away that the shockwaves of the battle weren't rattling his brain inside its unbreakable skull the seventh Campione had turned to try and get a handle on the fight that was shaping up before him.

The first thing he noticed was that Shirou's armoured form was definitely the fastest of the combatants. The blade whistled through the air as little more than a steely blur, his form dodging and shifting at speeds that seemed ludicrous for such a huge bulk. The golden forms of the two Benevolent Kings also moved at superhuman speed, but even though they filled the air with blurs of gold it was immediately obvious that they were nowhere in the same league as the great knight that they were fighting.

Still despite that disadvantage the pair of golden giants were none the less managing to keep pace with their foe. At first the young Kusanagi couldn't understand how they were managing it, but as he watched the realization dawned on him as to just how it was being done.

The King of Steel wasn't fighting with the same skill as he had before. His blows were still accurate, smooth and skilful, but they lacked the brilliant polish that they'd previously shown. It was true, while in this state Shirou couldn't call upon the skills within the weapons he created, so he had to rely upon his own familiarity with the sword and shield. Quite clearly he had some training, enough that he wasn't simply flailing about, however it was equally obvious that his skills were nowhere in the same league as his sworn sister's.

It was that difference in skill that was letting the Chinese King fight him on an equal footing despite his physical advantages. The blows he rained upon her puppets might be devastatingly fast and strong, but she could read where they were coming from, she could redirect the blade, absorb the impact of the shield, guide his attacks so that they missed their target altogether.

Another explosion of sparks lit the air and the one armed giant was sent stumbling back. The second immediately moved to cover it as the first regained its footing, but in that brief moment Godou had the chance to take a good look at both them and the Titan Knight.

It looked as though Luo Hao might have been able to bridge the gap in physical abilities with her magnificent skills, but one aspect that she wasn't able to compensate for was pure durability.

The Benevolent Kings had already been marred and scratched by their weathering of the storm of swords, but now deep gashes crisscrossed their arms and chest where they'd blocked or deflected that huge sword. By contrast the huge form of the Titan Knight was much less damaged. There were spots upon it where the mighty fists of the golden statues had dented the armour into small craters or where the metal had been bent out of shape, but measure for measure the armoured form of Shirou was definitely the better off.

It was the ability of the armour to absorb punishment that was the deciding factor. If skill and speed were cancelling each other out and the relative strengths of the fighters attacks were more or less equal then the tipping point was who could last the longest. And by the looks of it despite facing two to one odds the eighth Campione was coming out ahead. To be sure Luo Hao wasn't going down easily, not by any stretch of the imagination. The blows of her golden puppets struck with the strength of falling stars and the skills of a master among masters, but the shield endured and so did the armour despite the forces levelled against them.

He needed to help her.

The thought rose up in his mind as he tried to skirt the edge of the battle to get into a better position. So far he'd used his Camel, Raptor, Bull, Boar and Shining Chariot Authorities. The Shining Chariot was actually still manifested, but it was still tipped over, not to mention that it was at the other side of the battlefield. If he could get to it then he might well be able to right it, but right now he wasn't sure that he'd be able to reach it in time to do any good, in addition he didn't really think the blazing vehicle was a suitable Authority to use against the huge armoured Authority that his fellow Japanese King was currently using.

He still had the majority of his Authorities available to him, but the Youth, the Gust of Wind and the Ram were not of much use in this situation, the Goat was a possibility but one that he'd rather not have to use given its dangers, and the Golden Sword was still largely useless to him since he didn't have the knowledge need to bring out its power.

That just left him with Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi and the Stallion Authority. The problem was that neither of them were the best powers to have at this point. The sword of Susanoo was a powerful weapon, but even so he wasn't sure of how much use it would be against the towering knight armed with a sword that looked like it was designed to slay entire castles. The Stallion Authority was more suitable to attack such a foe, but the problem was that its restriction rendered it useless. Only one that had brought hardship or suffering to the masses could be the target of the solar Authority, and unlike just about every other Campione that Godou had ever met Shirou didn't fit the bill. None of his actions had ever caused the general public any kind of difficulty, even Godou himself was more of a valid target given his propensity to general destruction while battling Heretic Gods.

Still, his Stallion did seem like the best option available, it was certainly the only one of his remaining Authorities that had enough power to bring something like that down, so long as he didn't have the knowledge to use the Golden Sword anyway. But how could he fire it on Shirou when the eighth Campione didn't meet the requirements?

But . . . there was someone here that met those requirements, wasn't there? He'd been able to unleash the solar Authority on Luo Hao before, was there some way he could make use of that?

Moving as fast as he could whilst keeping to what cover there was available he made his way around the general area where the combat seemed to be rooted. His sworn sister seemed to be well aware of her disadvantage in speed and so was staying in one place so as to limit the means in which Shirou could employ that speed against her. The giant form of the King of Steel darted around her, trying to find an opening, but despite its speed the Ruler of the Martial Realm was still able to match him, anticipating where he would attack as well as where she could counterattack.

Yes. Yes, this could work. It would need to be carefully timed, but if he did this just right then he could call the Stallion down on Luo Hao when Shirou would be in its way. Since it would have to get through the ensorcelled king in order to get to its intended target Shirou would be the one to bear the vast brunt of its powerful attack.

The problem in this was the older Campione; would she be able to understand what he intended? Would she be able to see his plan and react accordingly? If she misunderstood him or took the wrong course of action then he might well end up taking her out of the fight rather than helping her. If it did come to that he honestly didn't like the look of the odds that would be facing him, so it was damned important that this went off the right way.

He took a couple of seconds to go over what he knew and then nodded to himself.

He'd risk it.

He wasn't too sure of quite a few things, but one thing that he felt confident in putting his faith in was the skills that he knew the Chinese Campione possessed. One didn't live as long as she had or grow as strong as she was by not being able to see the opportunities in the world about them. Luo Cuilian might be egotistical to a level that defied normal sensibilities, and she might operate on an honour system that was so antiquated as to be absurd, but one thing he had no doubt about was her martial expertise. She would see what she needed to. Of that he was absolutely sure.

Taking a deep breath and firming his stance he prepared himself to use his Authority as soon as the correct opportunity presented itself.


-()-


"So, this is what Mordred sought to become?"

Even as her beloved protector spoke his question Guinevere didn't take her eyes off the scene before her.

"Yes," she answered, her eyes still riveted upon the huge form of the transformed King of Steel, "Guinevere is sure that this Authority represents the end of the path that the traitor tried to follow when he sought to usurp our King's place as the Strongest Steel. It wasn't something he could ever achieve, not when he was a god of the Earth. But King Shirou's nature is that of a God of Steel, so when the Authority became his he was able to complete it as the traitor to our King could not."

There was a definite hint of satisfied spite in the words of her last pronouncement, a dark joy in the knowledge that what her old enemy had so desperately sought was now in the possession of not him but rather the young man that had slain him. To her way of mind it was a deliciously vicious little irony that the one that to all intents and purposes broke the traitor in the last moments of their battle could achieve what he so desperately wanted where he could not.

"I begin to see how it was that this King Shirou was able to vanquish our old foe," Lancelot commented as he continued to observe the ongoing battle, "He has demonstrated most wondrous prowess at arms and his Authorities are also of great strength, it is easy to see why you have come to see such value in him."

"There is more though Sir Knight," the Witch Queen commented as she briefly tore her eyes from the battle to glance at her protector, "Cast your gaze upon him and look, be sure to look deeply."

"What do you-" the question was abruptly cut off as the armoured form of the Knight of the Lake suddenly froze as though the one within had been petrified into a statue. "That . . . That is not possible. No mortal can have such steel within them."

"Guinevere told you so," the golden haired immortal child stated, her voice tinged with a certain smugness, "Sir Shirou is not like any other mortal we have ever encountered, there is something about his most fundamental core that is at once similar but different to that of a god of Steel."

There was just so much about the young King that should be impossible or that simply didn't make sense. And she still hadn't forgotten about that strange darkened version of the Divine Sword of Salvation either, simply another piece to a puzzle that continued to perplex her.

"This King Shirou . . . he would make a fine foe for one to battle."

There was a hunger, a dark lust in her dear protector's voice that made Guinevere glance up at him in mild concern. She was well aware of the warrior's spirit that burnt within her champion, that was one of the reasons that she enabled his aid in this fashion with the great spell upon him rather than asking him to descend in person. Were he to return to the mortal plane in full then it was quite likely that his thirst for combat would overwhelm his good sense and lead him to become just another Heretic God lost to their desires.

"Remember that we seek to rescue Sir Shirou," the former goddess reminded the knight, "We seek to have him as a future ally, not as an enemy to overcome."

"Ah, of course," the armoured head of her protector nodded in acquiescence, "T'would hardly do for your new paramour to be an enemy now would it?"

"Sir Knight!" A red flush began to creep up the face of the Divine Ancestor as she strove to keep her cool, "Sir Shirou is simply a valuable ally and one of the few Campione that Guinevere has ever met that is so friendly to her. If we can gain his alliance then we shall be in a better position to move despite that irritating King from our homeland."

"Oh ho, he's been 'friendly' to you has he? Perhaps this knight should remain on guard so that things may not become too friendly between one's beloved child and this young King."

There was no mistaking the amused and teasing tone that insinuated itself into the voice of Sir Lancelot, a tone that caused the Witch Queens' cheeks to burn as she lost all control over her restraint.

"Sir Kniiight!" her voice was now pleading and her palms were now pressed against her flaming cheeks in a picture of adorable distress.

However before either of them could continue their little byplay the night was suddenly lit up as a new sun suddenly appeared above them.


-()-


"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!"

Here went everything.

As Godou spoke the words he felt the pool of magic within him flow into the Authority as above him the night sky was lit up by the impossible sun that had suddenly made its appearance. Down from that sun came the horse composed of sun fire, faster than any arrow it shot at its intended target.

And the huge form of the Titan Knight was in the way.

The time it took for the stallion of the sun to cross the distance separating it from its target could only have been two seconds at the very most, but to Godou's adrenaline wired mind that time seemed to stretch out into minutes as he could see what was taking place with an almost unnatural clarity.

Luo Hao saw the stallion coming at them first since Shirou's back was to the attack. Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed as she saw the opportunity available. The great armoured knight had started to turn, having sensed the attack coming, but the two huge Benevolent Kings were too close and already moving.

The one armed one had literally impaled its remaining hand upon the sword's blade, forcing it down until the pierced hand rested on the hilt of the sword and its fingers wrapped around the hand holding it. At the same time the second huge golden puppet threw its arms wide and slammed into the knight's shield. There was no attempt to reach for a lock or to try to throw the King of Steel off balance, all the gold giant did was wrap its arms around the shield and the body behind it and clutch them in a bear hug.

It was a simple manoeuvre, a simple combination that immobilized both the Titan Knight's arms and locked him in place. There was little artistry or skills to the holds and Shirou would probably have been able to break them in short order if he had a little time.

But he didn't.

Godou swore that he could see the instant that the giant knight realized both his own position as well as the nature of the threat that was coming at him, saw it strain against the grip upon it and realize that it couldn't escape the grasp of the Benevolent Kings and then-

It disappeared?

The seventh Campione's mind stalled for a split second as it tried to grasp what it was seeing. One instant there had been the enormous white and steel grey figure of the Titan Knight then the next there was nothing and the two Benevolent Kings were simply grasping empty air.

Any further contemplation was cut off as the Stallion Authority slammed into the two golden giants.

Incredible, that was the only word he could think of to describe it. Where he had been stunned, if only momentarily, by the disappearance of the huge knight his sworn sister had reacted immediately, and had brought the manifestations of her Authority to step into the path of the Stallion so as to defend her from its fires.

As the spear of stellar level heat struck them Godou realized that this was the same strategy that she'd used to defend herself during their battle. However this time the two Buddha Guardians weren't at their full strength, both of them had been worn by the rain of swords and had then been further damaged by Shirou's arrows and the power of his giant knight Authority.

The first of the Benevolent Kings to be struck was the crippled one that had lost its arm. To all intents and purposes it simply ceased to be as soon as it was struck. There was no melting, no resistance of any sort; it simply went from solid to vaporized in a single blinding instant. All that was left of it was a coal black smear on the ground to mark its passing.

The second of the two giants was in better condition and met the oncoming horse of flames with its arms braced to endure its assault. The two Authorities clashed . . . and the golden giant fell. The Stallion tore through it leaving behind the lower torso and legs to fall to the ground as the head, shoulders and chest had been melted away into nothing.

However the sacrifice of the two Buddha Guardians had not been in vain, each of them had been able to slow the Stallion down a little and drain off some of its power as it dealt with them. By the time it broke through Luo Cuilian had been able to use those precious extra split-seconds to escape.

The Stallion struck the ground where she had been standing and erupted into a massive dome of fire and destruction, but the Chinese Campione had just managed to escape the zone of annihilation. It had been a close thing, a matter of only a few feet, but her flawless Jiǎo Qīng Bù had carried her to safety just in time.

But even as his eyes tracked her Eminence's near escape another movement to the side caught Godou's attention.

His eyes flicked over just in time to see the sword point heading straight for his face.


-()-


It was taking a certain level of effort on Luo Hao's part to suppress the groan of pain that was trying to force its way out of her throat. Granted she hadn't received any physical damage to herself, but she had been linked to her puppets and their destruction had cost her a worrying amount of her internal power, it was that, more than any pain, that made her want to groan. Still she refused to show any weakness, King Shirou might well have been able to escape her grip and left her to suffer her younger brother's powerful attack but she would not allow it to break her calm demeanour.

Of course that demeanour was sorely tried when she saw King Shirou with two katanas in-hand bearing down on her unknowing sworn brother at speed.

She immediately recognized the manner in which the King of Steel was moving, having encountered it herself during the early days of her consolidation of her rule over the Martial World. Back then she'd preferred not to use her Authorities to crush her opposition, finding that the use of her Martial Arts to be far more satisfying, however due to that some doubt had arisen in the more foolish quarters of the Martial world as to the truthfulness of her claims to be a Devil King. Some of the more foolish had sent assassins to try to slay her, a course of action that they came to regret . . . briefly.

Still among those assassins had been some brought over from the lands of the Rising Sun, men and women that though they had been no match for her had none the less made an impression upon her with their skills.

She recognized the way that the enchanted King of Japan was moving, having seen it used against both herself and others in the past; it was an assassination running technique. The style was one employed by both the followers of ninjutsu and the samurai arts as it allowed for sustained and swift motion culminating in any one of a dozen different attacks that employed the kinetic energy of the charge. It was a simple but effective technique that was also highly adaptable to modification where needed.

And right now it was being used against her sworn brother.

No thought was needed, even as Godou turned to see his oncoming death, even as his eyes widened as he saw the blades stab towards his eyes and throat the Ruler of the Martial Realm was already moving to protect him.

Winds whipped up around the seventh Campione leaving him standing in the calm centre of a miniature tornado. The twin katanas stabbed into the wind but were unable to reach their target before they were sent flying into the distance by the force of the swirling gusts.

For his part the ensorcelled God Slayer leapt back from the sudden column of spinning air as soon as the swords had been snatched from his hands. His Authority enhanced jump carried him a few metres from his target, but he landed in a crouch that spoke volumes of his intention to continue the assault. She saw his head turn to her for a brief instant, but then he focused once more upon the target before him.

Strange, it had been her thought that as soon as he realized that she was the architect of the defences that had thwarted his killing stroke that he'd turn his attention to her and forget about the younger Devil King. Instead he seemed to be getting ready to make another attempt. Had something changed? Had he received new orders from the goddess that commanded him without anyone realizing?

Luo Cuilian knew that there was something here, something that was important, but it remained tantalizingly beyond sight, let alone grasping. Instead she focused upon her controlled ally's movements as he held out both hands and the golden light of his magecraft filled them.

This time rather than wielding two blades at once King Shirou was grasping a single sword in both hands. The sword was another katana, one of slightly larger size than the ones that he'd been previously wielding, but unlike their silver steel blades the length of this sword was a pure and brilliant black.

It looked . . . familiar, she was absolutely certain that she had seen that sword before and fairly recently too.

But there was no time for her to try to place the sword because at that moment the eighth Campione shot forwards once more in the same striding half crouched run that seemed to eat up the distance between him and his target. As he charged the sword came up and around the full force of his weight and this motion all feeding into the swing to further empower it. However despite the speed of his rush and the force it lent his swing it still wasn't faster than her Authority, once more she spun her winds around her sworn brother to protect him. She had a plan now; as soon as the winds sent the enthralled Rakshasa Raja back once more she would use her Jiǎo Qīng Bù to close the distance between them and attack him directly with shockwaves. This would either send him flying or at least injure him enough to grant her the time to-

All thoughts as to what she could do as soon as the winds pushed the ensorcelled King Shirou away vanished as the black blade cut into the winds of her Authority.

There were no words to describe the sensation of her winds being . . . drunk by that blade. If the very blood in her veins had been leeched from her it could not have felt like more of a violation. Those winds were hers, they had been produced by her power and directed by her will and yet despite that the black sword had consumed them.

The shock of it, of the suddenly horrible intimate sensation, one that she'd never experienced the like of in all the decades of her life, broke her focus and sent her mind reeling in shock. As she took an involuntary step back the winds that had been protecting King Godou dissipated into nothingness. She only had a brief moment to curse herself, but even as she tried to resummon the winds she knew it was too late.

The black blade came down in an overhead swing at King Godou's neck. Perhaps the enhanced strength of his bones would keep the sword from bisecting him, but even if it did the angle of the cut would slice open too many veins and arteries for that to matter. Her sworn brother's life would spill out into the air in a crimson spray and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

But something else could.

With speed beyond any that she thought him capable of, at least without the use of the same Authority that he'd used against her, his hands came up, blocking the downward swing with . . . a black sword identical to the one being used against him?

Her confusion only had time to last an instant though, because as the two swords clashed a single all consuming note rang across the battlefield, like the tone of a cathedral bell made for the gods themselves.


-()-


When Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi rose to block the down swinging copy of itself Godou doubted that there was anyone that was more surprised by that turn of events than he himself.

The subordinate God had not arrived in answer to his summons, he hadn't even had time to begin the incantation, instead it seemed to have just . . . appeared on its own. Then the next thing he knew his arm was moving by itself and his Authority was intercepting the blow that was about to end his life.

However his surprise at both its appearance and his actions were eclipsed by what happened when the two blades met.

The noise was beyond anything that he'd ever heard before, his own collision with the armoured for of Shirou, the exchanged blows of the King of Steel and the Ruler of the Martial Realm, even the terrible discord of Apollo's Music of Insanity, none of them came close. Its sheer force surpassed mere volume; in fact volume wasn't really necessary for it. The ringing sound of humming metal seemed to sweep across the entire battleground in a way that defied puny mortal physics. The sound wasn't simply heard, it seemed to infiltrate and infect everything from the concrete on which he was standing to the very bones in his body, all of them were ringing in a strange sort of sympathy.

"A . . . Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi? Wh-What are you doing?!"

"I will not accept this!" the metal voice of the Divine Sword was different from how he'd ever heard it before. In the past it had been eager for battle or belligerent to the foes. Even when it had tried to kill him after taking control of Ena it had only sounded joyful to be able to fight him.

Now though, now it sounded furious, outraged beyond all measure.

"This . . . this effigy of my form is an affront to my very existence!" The Authority of Steel declared, its voice so enraged that he could feel it vibrating in the hilt he held even through the note's hum, "I shall not accept this, I shall not accept the existence of this . . . this soulless mockery!"

The strange ringing note suddenly cut off as Shirou disengaged the crossed swords and leapt back to open some room. He paused for a brief instant, his eyes flicking from Godou, to Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi and then to the copy he held in his hands. There was something going on behind those eyes, but it was something that the young Kusanagi couldn't quite identify.

The simple fact was that those eyes were wrong, they seemed to have no thought behind them and yet at the same time they were neither glazed nor mindless. There was something there, something that he couldn't recognize. And he also knew that it was something that was worryingly close to being inhuman.

There wasn't any more time for such thoughts though, because whatever had been holding the King of Steel back seemed to have ended since the enthralled Campione was coming at him once more, swinging the copy of his Authority and charging with that inhuman speed.

"I apologies for overstepping my bounds this way," the voice of the Divine Blade echoed in Godou's mind as a sound only he could hear, "A sword's nature is to be wielded, but for now I must beg your indulgence and violate that truth, for I cannot allow this insult to go unanswered.

"The blade that our foe holds is a copy, an imitation. It holds my power but has none of my spirit, none of my will. Its very existence is an affront to mine, one that must be answered!"

In all truth the young Kusanagi didn't have any problem with his sword taking the reins in this fight. Quite frankly it was doing a better job of it than he could have.

Left, down, up, right, down, up, right, left, right, down, up, the sword in his hand was weaving a net of black steel with a grace and speed that Godou was sure would take him years of training to be able to match. The black bladed sword met its mirror image again and again as it turned blows aside and struck attacks of its own. The seventh Campione could feel his body starting to ache from the strain of maintaining the pace, Shirou might have an Authority going to grant him speed and strength but he had no such advantage. The power of Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi was flowing into him, reinforcing his body, but it wasn't a power meant for what it was doing. As the blade had said before; it was meant to be wielded not to wield its wielder. Right now he was only aching, but he knew instinctively that if this went on too long then that ache would grow into pain and then into agony as his body slowly broke.

Something had to change or his body was going to give out before the battle finished.

So Godou did the only thing he could think of, he joined in.

Before he'd not been doing anything, simply watching in a kind of semi-shocked daze as his sword directed his body as it needed. After a few seconds he'd come out of his stunned state, but seeing that Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi was managing to fend off the enthralled King of Steel with greater skill than Godou himself could manage he'd decided to go with the flow for now.

Now though he wasn't simply watching passively, he was putting his own effort into each of the movements that the Divine Sword directed of his body. When the sword was swung he put his own effort into swinging it, when it was raised to block he blocked as well. Godou was a young man with swift reflexes and a swifter mind, he might not have been able to pull these moves off himself, but with his body already doing them it was possible for his mind to follow them and lend his own will to them.

"Yes!" Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi declared, its tone exultant, "That is the way my wielder, join your strength with mine! This poor imitation is no match for my mettle; it has power without spirit, strength without will. Swing me as a sword should be swung and it shall have no hope of victory!"

There was something more to the movements of the sword now, something that though indefinable was none the less a critical factor. Blows had more . . . not strength, that remained the same; rather there was more definition to them. Blocks were not firmer and yet they seemed to endure more

"That is the way!" the Divine Sword practically crowed, "Let us show this impudent fellow the difference between a sword with a soul and a mere hollow imitation!"

The blade came down once more and Shirou's own copy was brought up to block it, but as the swords made contact Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi roared. There was no other way that Godou could think of to describe it, as the two swords met the divine weapon's cry of contempt and defiance filled his mind like the boom of the surf on a sea shore.

The blade that the eighth Campione was using to defend himself shattered, it didn't simply break, it exploded into white light as the soulless copy fractured beneath the blow of its ensouled counterpart. The young Kusanagi barely had time to realize what was happening before he was sent stumbling back, the light striking him like the impact of an invisible bull.

"HAH!" the voice of Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi echoed in his mind, "The imitation blade was unable to contain the false divinity your fellow God Slayer created within it. Now let him pay the price for daring to create such an effigy of my magnificence!"

Still, as his eyes cleared from the flash he saw that Shirou had fared far worse than he had. If Godou had been hit by the bull's head then the eight Campione had been the one to get the horns. A gaping gash had been cut into the flesh of Shirou's left shoulder and ran down and across his chest leaving behind a wide and torn line of growing scarlet. The wound was a severe one, enough to send a man into shock and was enough to make Godou flinch back.

However what was even more disturbing than the wound itself was Shirou's own absolute lack of reaction to the wound. His eyes didn't so much as flicker as the destruction of his imitation Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi carved a gash through his flesh, instead they seemed to flick from him to the sword he held and then to the approaching form of Luo Hao.

Abruptly the sword in Godou's hands came up in a block just in time to intercept the black and white swords that the King of Steel had swung at the seventh Campione's throat. Metal rang, but before the sword could even begin to shift place so as to go on the offensive Shirou was leaping backwards, opening more distance between them.

"A most fine blow my little brother, the first full strike that we've been able to lay upon King Shirou since this battle began."

The voice of the Ruler of the Martial Realm was as melodic as ever, but there was a slight edge to it that gave it a slight discordance. She sounded . . . tired? That was the closest word he could come up with, even though it didn't quite grasp what he was getting. She didn't sound defeated or weary, her energy and confidence were undiminished, but at the same time there was a sense that she was drained, less than she had been when the battle began.

Well that was to be expected he supposed. The battle had been going on for longer than he'd thought it would and she had lost one of her major Authorities. For that matter he wasn't quite feeling too full of energy himself. In fact, now that he thought about it, his whole body ached for the excretions that had been placed on it over the course of this battle.

Still, Shirou had to be in worse shape right? He'd been using his Authorities almost constantly, had shifted from one to another of his armours so that now both the Armour of the Champion and the Titan Knight were no longer available to him. He'd also taken a number of blows from both him and Luo Hao as well as that deep gash across his chest. He had to be feeling the strain as much as them.

But . . . did he care? Could he care? The goddess that seemed to have him under her control had ordered him to fight until he won or died, it was pretty clear that the control and that order had had some effect on how his mind worked. And he hadn't reacted to being wounded by the destruction of his weapon, could it be that in his current state he'd ignore exhaustion? He'd heard about that before, people who could push themselves to keep going right up to the point where their bodies just gave out on them and they dropped dead on the spot. If that was what they were dealing with here . . .

"Blood falls to the ground and brings fertility to the soil. Blood spills in battle and feeds the battleground. Drunk on blood the slaughter continues without friend or foe, all shall spill out their life's blood upon the blood soaked fields so that the bloody harvest may spring forth."

The words were spoken in the same emotionless voice that the ensorcelled King of Steel had used earlier, but even though the tone was flat there was no way that one could miss the power the words possessed. As the last word was spoken a ripple radiated out from where Shirou stood, and where that rippling distortion passed the world was changed.


-()-


Illya lowered her arms from where they'd been raised protectively in front of her face. It had been a purely reflexive action, as the strange wall of . . . wrongness had come at her she'd instinctively summoned her puppet to protect her as well as raising her arms to shield her face as though from a driving wind. And of course it had been utterly pointless.

It hadn't been anything physical that had washed over them all, it had been a shift in reality, and it had been one that she'd been dreading. The blasted, torn and cratered park was gone, replaced by wide, flat grasslands. The river still ran where it had been, but now it was a river with banks of soil and moss. The huge bridge that had once spanned its width was now simply gone, all those thousands of tonnes of concrete and metal that had made it up just vanished. The same was true of all the other wreckage and debris, as well as the few surviving lamp posts, which had likewise disappeared; nothing broke the smooth plain of grass beneath the bright moon.

The Bloodstained Fields, this was not an Authority that Shirou had been at all eager to test out, its size and effects were simply too large and too encompassing to be used lightly. He'd been able to use meditation to more or less work out what the Authority would do, but the young Einzbern was pretty sure this was the first time that he'd actually used it.

But she knew what it could do, his notes had been very clear on that, and that meant that they were now all on limited time, and the more it ticked away the worse things would get.

Yuri! The thought ran through her head even as her head swung frantically from side to side as her eyes sought for the brown haired Hime-Miko. She had to pass the knowledge of Mordred on to Godou; otherwise things were going to start going downhill very fast very soon.

There!

The young shrine maiden had moved from the last place the young Magus had seen her, but with the lack of cover or obstacles it was pretty easy to spot her and the other supporters once more. Yuri was still with Ena, but now Erica and Liliana had come to join her. Luo Hao's disciple was far off to the other side and closer to the river, his eyes locked on where his master and Godou were facing off against Shirou.

Illya might not have been nearly as talented at self reinforcement as Shirou, but she was still able to boost herself up enough that she covered the distance between her and the two members of the History Compilation Committee in a few seconds. Indeed it had felt easier than it normally would, was that the Bloodstained Fields affecting her already? She knew that that part of its effects was to raise physical power in proportion to the level of rationality that it stripped away. Was she already starting to lose her sanity? Was this increase in her ability to reinforce herself a sign that it had already begun? Just how much of her ability to think clearly had she already lost? As a Magus she had some degree of Magic Resistance, nothing compared to a Campione or a Servant, but still some, how long would it be able to protect her?

No, she couldn't let her thoughts run down that path; if she kept on second guessing herself then she'd end up in a continuous spiral of self doubt that would pretty much paralyse her until the Authority completely overtook her. She had to stay focussed upon what was important.

"Have you been able to get the knowledge of Mordred?" the words came out as sharper than she'd meant them to be and she noted that the black haired Ena was frowning at her in a rather uncharacteristic manner for the easy going Hime-Miko, "You know how dangerous this Authority is, if we don't get Godou to shut it down soon then we'll all be tearing each other apart."

"Don't speak to Yuri-chan like that, she's doing her best." The Hime-Miko of the Sword stepped forwards almost, but not quite, putting herself between Illya and the elder Mariya sister.

"Her best isn't-" the Einzbern heir cut her words off and choked down the rising urge to snarl at the girl in front of her. She could still feel it, that irrational, directionless irritation that seemed to be gnawing on her, right now it was a small thing, but she knew that with time it would grow.

"It's . . . it's alright Ena, Illya-san is just worried."

The tension was broken as Yuri stepped forwards and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I haven't got it . . . not yet, but with this Authority extended I can feel that I'm close. I just need a little more time."

It took all of Illya's self control not to slap the girl. Time? Time was the one thing that was most precious at the moment. Every tick of the clock brought them another step closer to mindless savagery, did she not understand that?!

Closing her eyes the snow haired girl took a deep breath as she forced her emotions back under control. This wasn't good, the power of this Authority was terrifying, especially to a Magus like her. She had to keep control, if she lost it then with her puppet Berserker at her command she might well be the most dangerous of all those who weren't Campione. After all unlike Ena she didn't need rationality to operate her false Servant, instinct would be enough to send it on a rampage.

She had to keep control.


-()-


The remnant of what had been Emiya Shirou evaluated the two threats before it and considered how best to utilize available resources.

Actually, that wasn't quite correct. Such words as 'evaluate' or 'considered' weren't truly applicable to the remnant since it didn't possess thought processes in the way that a normal mind did. That said while it wasn't capable of thought it was capable of judgement to a certain degree. It could take the factors that it was observing and react in a certain way based solely upon the instincts that had been driven bone deep into the entity known as Emiya Shirou.

Now it knew that it was in an environment that despite its peaceful appearance in truth practically radiated bloodlust. The very grass longed to be bathed in the warm crimson of spilt life fluid. It was a subtle thing, not so overt as to be immediately obvious, but the instincts and experience that the eighth Campione had gained by assimilating the memories of EMIYA were more than up to the task of detecting the sensation.

Added to that was the fact that feeding the Authority the blood that it longed for would only be to the remnant's advantage since it was an essential component of its power. The weapons in the Reality Marble were searched through, not so much thought of, but rather 'fitted' against the problem of drawing blood. A number were close, but not quite what was needed. Their special abilities might allow them to draw blood in large quantities, but the targets had already proven themselves to be both skilled and resourceful. What was needed was . . .

Then a Noble Phantasm was found that possessed all the needed qualities. It was powerful, dangerous, efficient and almost a guaranteed successful strike, not only that, its own bloodthirsty nature ensured that it fitted into the environment of the Authority like a shark into bloody water.

Extending one hand to the side the remnant spoke.

"Trace, on."


-()-


Fear was almost an alien emotion to the Ruler of the Martial Realm, with her boundless courage and confidence she had to all intents and purposes crushed it out of her character decades ago. Still, she was not a fool and as such had ensured that she didn't go so far as to eliminate the emotion entirely from her being via training and meditation. After all, to be without fear was to be without caution, and to be without caution was to be a fool. So she had kept a small ember, little more than a spark really, of the emotion carefully buried within her.

And now that spark burned.

When she'd first seen the crimson spear form in King Shirou's hands she'd thought that it was another recreation of the spear that he'd gifted to John Pluto Smith, the same one that had cut through her Authority before. Then she'd taken a better look at it, seen the differences in the form, the thinner head, the short barbs, all in all this seemed to be a weapon of a crueller design.

But there was more to it than mere physical difference. This weapon seemed to positively drip bloodlust. In the past Luo Hao had encountered weapons that were used for bloodshed so frequently and so violently that they developed their own thirst for it, but the spear that was being levelled at her seemed to be on a completely different level to anything that she'd ever encountered before. Even the weapons of the war gods that she'd faced, beings of eternal slaughter and savagery in some cases, hadn't felt so steeped in bloody violence.

It was not merely the weapon that was sparking her long cooled fear. This Authority, the one that had transformed the landscape of the battlefield, it felt almost as thirsty for blood as that unnerving weapon did. Even more than that she could feel its power scratching at the edges of her mind, feel it trying to twist her, change her. For now the magic resistance of a God Slayer and her own will protected her, but even those qualities had their limits.

"Brother Godou . . ." her voice was low but intense, a tone that she rarely used these days, but whenever it was employed it was always obeyed, "I shall confront and hold King Shirou here, you must join with your Hime-Miko and gain the knowledge you need to cut this Authority."

"Are-Are you sure?" the seventh Campione's voice sounded tense, on edge. Good, that meant that he'd also noticed the savage aura the enclosed the weapon and had recognized just what it meant. Such was only to be expected of the one that had handed her her first defeat in decades and whom she had judged worthy of being her sworn brother. Still for all his fine qualities he would be more hindrance than help here, he would be best served in finding a way to dispel this Authority before it turned them all into mindless berserkers than he would be at her side.

"Go!" she declared with an emphatic nod of her head.

The young King didn't argue, instead he took off at a sprint in the direction where all their servants and allies had gathered. Idly the Ruler of the Martial Realm noted that despite his apparent lack of any sort of formal training her sworn brother still had a fine turn of speed. She made a mental note to instruct her Young Eagle to pass on some scrolls on the techniques of Jiǎo Qīng Bù, King Godou would benefit from such study she was sure.

Then there was no time for further thought. King Shirou's eyes flicked to the side, focussing on the retreating form of her sworn brother. In that brief instant Luo Hao channelled her Qi to her hands and manifested it in the form of a Qiang spear. As she did so she couldn't help but compare her own materialization of the weapon to the magic that the eighth Campione was using. Coming up short of another was not an experience she had much experience with and it was not one that she enjoyed. After this whole mess was resolved she'd have to spend some time improving her weapons making technique since clearly it was still unperfected.

Her Chinese style weapon clashed with the crimson spear. Almost immediately she could see the difference with how he fought to how he had earlier. When he had used the earlier spears his movements had possessed a consummate skill that she'd had no choice but to admire, now his movements were less refined, more wild, yet at the same time there was a ferocity, a . . . dominance that he'd not possessed before. Truly she wished that she could fight the original wielders of those weapons, such a battle might well almost be as satisfying as challenging a Heretic God to battle.

The exchange of blows was ferocious but brief, both spears whipped about in a manner closer to staffs than lances as the blades were deflected and blocked. The green turf about them was reduced to slashed and stabbed wasteland in a matter of seconds. Once more it was a case of raw power and skill against her own unequalled martial supremacy. If she was to be completely honest with herself Luo Hao was well aware that without the use of an Authority she would not have been able to match her foe, at least not if he'd been at his best. The strength and speed that his own Authorities granted him was just too much.

However right now King Shirou was being hampered by that wound across his chest. Regardless as to the vitality and resistance of a Campione King Godou's sword had sliced through several muscles on his shoulder and chest, and those cuts were hampering his movements considerably, enough for her to close the gap in their abilities with her skills.

The two of them broke apart, each backing off to gain the room to prepare for their next attack. As she drew deep calm breaths in order to slow her thumping heart. She could feel it, the exhilaration of combat pushing at her self restraint, urging her to abandon thought and simply charge forwards to the glorious joy of violence without thought. It was a sensation she was familiar with, one that many seasoned fighters knew to recognize and ignore. It was simply the stupid self aggrandizing part of the mind that demanded immediate satisfaction without care for future consequences. But now she could feel it growing louder than it should be, hear its song becoming more tempting than it normally was.

Seeing that the Qiang she held was now cracked and dented the Chinese Campione dismissed it and brought another into being. Yes, she would definitely have to look into improving the quality of the weapons that she could form with her magic. Still, no time to think about that now. What was King Shirou doin-

The sudden wave of pure blood thirst struck and rolled over her like a wave from some bloody ocean.

Her red haired foe had adopted an odd stance; knees bent slightly the length of his crimson spear pointed diagonally down at the ground while the haft was raised above his shoulder. Blood dripped from his wound and splashed upon the ground with a dull noise that seemed strangely out of place given the sudden violence that had only just ceased.

But that wasn't what had frozen her thoughts, it had been the spear. Before it had been dripping its thirst for blood, now though that drip had become a roaring flood. Indeed it seemed as though the head of the spear was vibrating with pent up eagerness to attack, as though . . .

Luo Hao blinked, honestly surprised at what she was seeing. The head of the spear, no, the entire front third of the weapon was steaming like some sort of wild animal. Or was it steam? Was it instead smoke? She couldn't tell, but either way the aggression she felt coming off the spear was well beyond anything that she'd have imagined coming from something her friendly and polite ally possessed.

"So . . . was this what you were hiding King Shirou?"

There was no reply to her question, but then she hadn't been expecting one. Instead she readied her weapon as the enthralled God Slayer came at her once more.

Her weapon shattered after blocking only two blows from the crimson spear, but that had been enough to survive the exchange and the two of them were now passing each other. A new lance formed in her hands as she whirled about to face him once more. Even as she did so she drew upon her Authority. When next they clashed she'd use the winds of the Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl to further enhance her attack, that would be enough to send him flying without inflicting too much harm to him. Once that was done she could-

She was going to die.

She was going to die she was going to die she was going to die she was going to die.

Shewasgoingtodieshewasgoingtodieshewasgoingtodieshewasgoingtodie!

The absolute knowledge that she was about to be killed slammed into her as though Atlas himself had suddenly dropped the sky upon her. Every instinct in her body, every supernaturally honed sense, all of them screamed at her that her only future was to die. It was her Fate. It was her Destiny. It was her Future and there was nothing that could chan-

No.

NO!

Fate, destiny, what did these matter to a Campione? By her very existence she had defied the absolute fate that all mortals existed below the rule of the gods. This was merely another fate to be defied.

She twisted in place, she had no idea why she was doing it but she wrenched her body to the side as though her life depended upon it. It was a senseless motion, one that had no definable reason, and yet she was sure that if she didn't do so then she would perish. Of that she was absolutely certain.

Even as she moved King Shirou was also charging. But even more than her his movements made no sense. His Authority granted him immense speed, more than she currently could match even with her Qi running through her veins and strengthening her flesh, but she could read his movements which gave her the edge she needed. However this time she couldn't understand the reason for his actions. Rather than thrusting the lance at her in any way that could have harmed her he was instead . . . aiming at the ground between her feet?

Even as he moved thoughts flashed through Luo Cuilian's mind. Was this some sort of detonating weapon? Was his intention to catch her in an explosion or something similar? Had her instincts been wrong in what they'd told her to do? Should she have instead retreated so as to avoid the possible blast? What-

"Gae . . ."

As the whispered word was spoken it was as though the magic in the air had been ignited and frozen at the same time. The waves of bloodlust emanating from the spear iced in place. No, that wasn't right; they crystallized into something else, something . . . other.

"Bolg!"

The spear . . . bent.

There was no other way to describe, and yet that word was also totally inadequate to describe what took place. The lance that had been aimed at her feet one instant was then heading directly at her body the next, aiming at her heart.

But she was already in motion; the earlier twisting of her body that had made no sense now pulled her heart out of the path of the blood red spear. Moving faster than a bullet it shot at her, but already its target had evaded, it was by the smallest of margins, but it was enough.

Pain exploded through the left side of her chest. Her contortions had saved her heart, but the spear had still pierced her flesh. Rather than lancing through her heart the thrust had caught her above her left breast and just below the shoulder. Regardless of the toughness of Campione muscle and tissue the red lance had impaled her straight through and she now stood pinned by it, indeed were it not holding her up she might well have collapsed to her knees as the shock of the sudden pain robbed her of her strength.

Even as that thought occurred to her anger and adrenaline flooded her system. She would not fall to a mere stab wound like this. Had she grown so weak in her strength that she could no longer endure pain? In her early years as a God Slayer she'd battled and defeated a Heretic god even though the muscles in both her arms had been reduced to pulped and rotting meat by their curse. The pain had been beyond anything she'd ever experienced but she had still emerged victorious despite it. Would she be brought low by a comparatively minor wound?

The muscles that had been pierced through tightened about the very weapon that impaled them holding it in place with a grip of iron. Even as that happened she lashed out with her right hand and a shockwave of compressed air slammed into King Shirou's chest like the blow of a sledgehammer. Caught off guard and off balance the eighth Campione was sent reeling back, the lance slipping from his grip that had been lightened in preparation for his next move, and wasn't able to regain his balance in time to keep a following shockwave from sending him tumbling away.

Having gained some room Luo Hao reached to the spear and gripped it with her right hand, pain radiating from the abused muscles as she did so. She paused for a fraction of a second to steel herself, then with a single sharp movement wrenched the weapon out.

The pain burnt through her as the barbs below the head did their job and inflicted more damage to her as they were pulled back through the wound but she bore it without sound. Instinctively she channelled some of her Qi to the wound only to wince as she felt the injury reject the power trying to heal it. Blood pumped from the wound even as she tried to staunch the wound with her hand. Why wasn't the wound closing? Both her power as a Campione and her skills with her internal energy should have had some effect by now.

Starting to feel slightly light headed her eyes were caught by the red of the spear against the grass. The contrast was startling, but at the same time it matched the little berries that seemed to be forming around its head. The effect was oddly appealing.

Shaking her head to try to dispel her wandering thoughts the Chinese Campione tried to focus. Berries, that was important. The berries meant that the effects of the Bloodstained Fields were growing. Blood from Shirou and now blood from her, was it enough to push for the growth of the field's harvest? She had to close this wound before more blood was spilt to lend more strength to the Authority. Gritting her teeth she tried to force more energy into the wound, tried to overpower the malignant energies that clung to it and fought off her attempt to treat it.

Nothing. The energies in the wound fought off her attempts to overwhelm them. For a split second she couldn't understand it, how had she been cursed? How had it gotten past her magic resistance? Then she realised that the curse had been applied to the inside of the wound, inside her magic resistance.

Rage and panic rose up within her, but with effort she forced them down. She didn't have much time, at most it would only take King Shirou a handful of seconds to recover and come at her again. She had to use her time wisely.

Very well, the wound wasn't closing because it was cursed. She couldn't overcome the curse, so what did that leave her with? Undoing it was the logical step to take, but she didn't have the time to experiment with Daoist arts and knowledge. She needed some way to remove its power.

A thought struck her and her eyes shot to the fallen spear. Sometimes the curse of weapon was broken if the weapon that inflicted it was itself destroyed, so if she broke the spear . . .

A surge of power from the direction of King Shirou brought her eyes up. He was standing with a bunch of the red berries in his hands. They seemed small and unripe, but as he was still biting into them. There was an uncaring animalistic note to his actions, the way he bit into the berries unmindful of the juice that smeared his lips or even of the stalks that he ate with the fruit. Still, unripe though they may have been there was definitely some power to them. As soon as his throat swallowed the half chewed mass down the effects were immediately obvious. The slash across his chest began to steam and heal at a visible rate, the edges of the wound slowly pulling together.

No time for further contemplation. Once that wound was fully healed then he'd be able to come at her with his full power and she'd be hampered by her own injury. Certainly she possessed a number of Authorities that would allow her to fight, but many of them were inelegant, uncivilized powers gained by vanquishing savage Heretic Gods, in other words abilities that didn't suit her sense of aesthetics. No, if she could break this curse then she was sure that the Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl would be enough to allow her to battle properly.

Her mind made up she raised one leg, channelled her powerful Qi into it and brought it down upon the spear with a thunderous crash. The ground cratered into a depression that could have doubled as a grenade crater, but the spear remained unbroken. A grimace formed on the Chinese Campione's face as she saw her ensorcelled foe look up at her. She had no doubts that she could destroy the spear, but the problem was that she didn't think she had enough time to do it. Any second now King Shirou would be fully recovered.

Then the idea hit her, she didn't give it a second thought, simply seized on it as the best course of action available to her. Letting go of her wounded shoulder she grabbed the spear up and, unmindful of the pain flaring from her injured shoulder as it protested her movements, hurled it straight at the King of Steel.

The result was immediate, as soon as he saw the weapon he'd created being used against him it shattered into golden light which in turn disappeared, a foolish mistake upon his part, but one that could be attributed to his current mental state.

Immediately she could feel the curse fade from her wound, feel the resistance to her Qi crumble away. Her internal energies flowed into the injury and at once she could feel the flow of blood stem as the pain from the wound likewise faded. It wasn't a complete healing, not by any stretch. With her internal power she could suppress the pain and mitigate the blood loss as well as accelerate the healing, but it was nowhere on the level needed to fully recover in time to be of use in what remained of this battle.

Anger flared in her at that thought. Why should she be crippled and unable to use her full strength? An irrational urge to throw caution aside and simply charge straight at her foe while he was still healing up grew in her, but she crushed it down. With a slow rotation of her left arm she noted that the pain was less than it should have been even with her internal energy applied to it, the arm also felt stronger than it should be given that she still had a hole running through several of her muscles.

The situation was growing worse by the second it would seem. The Bloodstained Fields were growing in power and she could already feel the aggression that she'd been suppressing growing and straining under her control.

As the King of Steel created another pair of blades and came at her she hoped that her younger brother was enjoying better fortune than she was.


-()-


"I-I've got it!"

Yuri's words came just in time to keep Illya from grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Not a moment too soon," Erica commented, "Here comes Godou."

Those were certainly true words; everyone was starting to feel the effects of the Authority they were trapped in to one degree or another. Kaida had been the worst affected, growing increasingly irritable and angry until she nearly unleashed a Dragon's Roar out of directionless anger. After that she'd been rendered unconscious at her own request. The rest of them weren't quite as bad, but everyone was feeling the pressure and the uneasy distrust of having to watch each other was like a black cloud hanging over them.

Even Illya was being affected despite all the prana she was channelling into her Wishcraft Sorcery Trait to defend herself. It would seem that even a defuse Authority like this one was still more than powerful enough to overwhelm any defence she could manage. Over the last few minutes she'd been having to quash the urge to run out and join in the battle more and more. What was even worse was that she was starting to want to join both sides. Every time Luo Hao made a move against her onii-chan the young Einzbern had to restrain the urge to dash out and defend her adopted brother. Likewise whenever Shirou attacked she was struck by the urge to unleash Berserker upon him so as to speed up his defeat and rescue.

Shaking her head in an attempt to rid herself of the growing desire for any sort of violence Illya shifted her gaze from where Shirou was confronting Luo Hao to where Godou was dashing towards them as fast as he could. The battle between her Eminence and her adopted brother wasn't going so well. The wound she'd taken from Gae Bolg was slowing her down, though she was managing to make up the difference with her martial expertise and the use of her wind Authority. Shirou was using a pair of European longswords that she didn't recognize, though judging by his movements their wielder had been an individual of considerable skill.

Godou arrived in a rush, his breath laboured as he recovered from the rush.

"Mariya, we've got to get started, is that OK?"

"Yes, very well. Just do as you desire, I'm ready this time . . . yes."

The contact between their lips was light at first, but quickly grew more intense as Godou's tongue came into play and reached into Yuri's mouth. There was a startled sound from her which quickly grew into a more appreciative sound as she leaned in closer to him. Godou himself stiffened in place as the knowledge that he needed must have been transferred over.

"Godou-san . . . Please . . . Accept more from me, take the knowledge that you need from within me, using greater strength to absorb it all, I do not mind even if you act a bit more rough . . . Yes . . ."

"Mariya...!"

"Oh for . . . just get on with it!"

It wasn't until the sole of her small foot caught Godou on the backside and sent him and the brown haired Hime-Miko tumbling to the ground that Illya realized that the one who'd spoken and acted was her.

"Einzbern-san, just what do you think you're doing?!"

Liliana's sharp question as well as the sound of her hand grasping the hilt of her sword was oddly distant to the snowy haired girl. Right now the only thing running through her mind was that she'd just kicked one of the most powerful people in the world over. It was just that he was taking his time with what seemed to be an unnecessarily long kissing scene with the elder Mariya sister and her patience had snapped. Honestly was she the only one here with a sense of urgency?

Alright, he seemed to be a fairly nice guy, so it was unlikely that he'd blast her out of existence for her insolence, but still . . .

Well, she was this deep already so she'd best forge on ahead. Maybe that was the anger sparked by the Bloodstained Fields talking, but right now it did look like the best option available.

"In case you haven't noticed her Eminence is wounded and at a disadvantage. You can all have you harem romance scene later if you like, I'm sure the viewers won't have any objection, so just get the knowledge and hurry."

As she said the last words Illya blinked in confusion and then went slightly cross eyed as she instinctively tried to stare at her treacherous mouth. That hadn't been what she meant to say. Well, she had meant to say that bit about hurrying up, but all that stuff about scenes and viewers, that had only been an idle thought about how the situation resembled some of the harem anime she'd seen before. Given the way everyone was now staring at her she may well have done some damage to her reputation as a calm and rational young woman.

"I-I think I've got it."

The sound of the downed Campione brought an end to the odd atmosphere that had fallen with her words and brought their attention back to the situation at hand.

That situation being that Mariya Yuri was flat on her back with the young Kusanagi lying on top of her with a faraway look in his eyes

"Mordred, Knight God tied to the pagan arts and druidism. Origin found in Mars, Ares and Laran. Yes, that should do."

"Um . . . Godou-san?"

Illya's voice, now a good bit more timid than it had been before, brought him out of his mental review of the knowledge that he'd received from the Hime-Miko.

"You do know you're-"

"Godou!" Erica's strident voice cut off Illya's somewhat more hesitant words as she stepped forwards. "I know I said that I approved of Yuri as your second woman, but I hardly think this is the time to be so passionate with her."

The young King blinked, then became aware of his situation. Since he'd been the taller of the two Yuri had been sent stumbling back from his weight as he fell on her. Consequently his head was resting upon the crook of her right shoulder with his chin poking at the top of her breast. Both his arms, which had instinctively come up to cushion his fall, were on either side of her torso just above her waist while the rest of him was weighing down on her legs. All in all he looked less like he'd fallen on her and more as though the pair of them were just about to engage in far more amorous activities.

Even as he scrambled to his feet Illya couldn't help but think that this really did resemble an anime. But if that was the case . . . then who was the main character? Obviously Godou had the majority of the romantic leads as well as clear 'plot armour', but on the other hand Shirou was pretty spectacular as well. So then-

Dear Root of All Creation, maybe Shirou was right and she had been watching too much anime.


-()-


"Both eloquent and powerful. I am the sword of wisdom, that which tears foes apart. I am the strongest, for I am the one holding all victory in my hands. I shall smash through all enemies in my way!"

Even as he spoke the words Godou could feel his Authority unfold, for lack of a better word, from within him. Almost immediately he felt resistance. This area was already under the sway of an Authority that altered the landscape; the Bloodstained Fields would not yield their place upon these grounds easily.

Well that was fine, it was his intention to slash them apart anyway.

"The fields that were soaked in blood were the fields where men waged war, and it was over those fields that Mordred, the Knight of Betrayal and Bloodshed ruled!"

As he spoke those words the curved golden sword materialized in his hand even as the ground upon which he stood changed from green grass to barren rock that glowed with a golden light.

"Mordred was only the latest name of a god that had known many names in the past."

As he recited the knowledge that Yuri had imparted upon him the golden land he stood on expanded fighting back the grass as more swords appeared hovering in the air or impaled in the ground. Shirou must have noticed something, because he broke off his engagement with Luo Cuilian and started charging at where Godou stood. He could handle that, if he could handle Voban charging him in the form of a gigantic man-wolf then he could handle this.

"To the Romans he was Mars; to the Greeks he was Ares. Still before that he was called Laran, but his roots are even older than that."

The swords that had been previously hovering in the air suddenly oriented themselves so that they were all pointing at the oncoming King of Steel, the metallic rattling rasp of their movements oddly compelling in the strange twilight created by the moon and his glowing land.

"Before he was a god of war Mordred was simply a god of bloodshed and slaughter, a berserker god called upon by the primitive African tribes that didn't even have a name for him."

One sword was launched at the oncoming Campione. Shirou's hand lashed out and the blade in his hand met the golden sword. His blade was a creation of his own magic, not a divinity such as the one that the Golden Sword was meant to slash apart. Yet at the same time the swords produced by his Authority were creations of a god's power and the knowledge that he'd imparted upon them made them strong. The gold sword shattered into fragments, but the weapon in Shirou's hand was left cracked and scored. The damaged weapon was cast aside and another appeared in the enthralled God Slayer's hand, but by then more of the golden swords were coming at him.

"Blood fertilizes the fields and they in turn give way to a harvest. The harvest shall feed the men; feed their strength and their wealth which shall in turn lead them to further conflict."

Shirou's charge had been halted as he now stood in place his swords a mesh of flashing steel as each and every sword that was sent at him was cut from the air. His own blades suffered, but whenever they were near breaking they were immediately discarded and replaced.

The irony of his resistance was that it was largely pointless. Even if the swords had struck him the damage they would have inflicted would have been minimal since they cut the power of an Authority rather than flesh. The red haired Emiya's resistance was slowing the attack upon the Bloodstained Fields but not halting it. All about him golden swords were stabbing into the ground, and from where they were embedded the golden terrain of Godou's Authority spread. It was a small start at the moment, merely small pools of gold dotting the fields of green, but as more and more swords thudded into the ground more pools formed and grew. Soon they would run together and the holes that had been punched in the eighth Campione's Authority would become rends and then slashes that would in turn cut it apart.

"Earth and blood, those were the roots of his origin, earth and blood and violence!"

More swords rained down, and like blobs of mercury the patches of golden landscape were running together, growing and overwhelming the green grass and the budding berries as runes of golden light began to float amongst the hovering swords. For his part Shirou was having an increasingly hard time with the rain of blades falling upon him. Even though he was Tracing his blades at a ferocious pace it was only a matter of time until-

There!

A sword made it through his defences and impaled him in his left upper thigh. The King of Steel visibly flinched as the golden weapon sank in and all around the remains of the Bloodstained Fields seemed to waver ever so slightly, but even so his defence didn't waver. His swords continued to cut the golden weapons from the air as they came at him, but then another of the divinity cutting blades made it through, this time catching him on his right shoulder.

Godou took a deep breath and prepared to end this. He could keep the flow of blades up until he completely overwhelmed his fellow Japanese Campione, but that seemed to be cruel. Instead he drew his strength together for a final attack.

"That is the true nature and source of the Knight of Betrayal, Mordred!"

That was it, the climax of the knowledge infusion. The Golden Sword was now complete and every sword now answered his call. Rank upon rank of them massed up behind him, each fitting so closely to the ones near it that in the space of a few seconds they came to resemble a golden sea rather than a mass of swords.

Shirou stood before him, the distance separating them oddly inconsequential despite its length. The red haired King's face remained as impassive as it had been for the whole battle, but even so there was an air of courage and defiance about him. Glowing gold blades impaled him through his shoulder, both legs and his abdomen, yet despite the pain the magic swords inflicted he remained unbowed.

With a shout the seventh Campione brought the sword he held in both hands down in an overhead chop that ended with the tip of the blade pointing straight at Shirou.

In response to him the sea of swords behind him surged forwards. They parted and flowed about him as though he were an island in the midst of a river. The golden river then crested and formed into a huge wave of swords that bore down on their target like some great beast from long ago myth.

Shirou raised his arms to Trace another weapon, but the golden swords impaling him slowed him down and the oncoming wave was too fast, his hands were just closing upon the Traced broadsword he'd created when the golden wave came crashing down.

The King of Steel vanished beneath the flood of blades, their numbers rolling over him, burying him. Almost as soon as he was covered white light shone through from the gaps in the swords, even as the remaining patches of green grass also started to light up in the same fashion. A tight smile of satisfaction touched Godou's lips as the white light flashed to incandescence that swamped the whole battlefield. This was something he was familiar with, something he'd seen before. The severing of a divine Authority always released such a flash as it broke.

Well, that took care of the Bloodstained Fields. With any luck that meant that Luo Hao would now be able to carry out her part of one of the plans they'd come up with should this situation come to pass.


-()-


As soon as she saw King Godou's Authority begin to overwhelm the Bloodstained Fields the Ruler of the Martial Realm was already in motion. Her sight was blinded by the sudden flash of light, but to one that had long since mastered the art of fighting blind this was no great obstacle. She felt the ground changing under her feet, going from grass and bare wasteland back to the debris littered ruin it had been before the berserker-inducing Authority had been employed, but her footing remained sure and not a stumble entered her steps.

It took her mere seconds to cover the distance and be at her sworn brother's side even before her eyes had fully cleared. Blinking away the last of her blindness she saw that the Golden Sword was dissolving into sparks of gold that faded in much the same way that the shards of King Shirou's broken weapons did.

"Well . . . that was easier than I thought it'd be." The seventh Campione's words were at odds with his appearance; though he was putting up a valiant façade Luo Cuilian could see that he was approaching exhaustion.

Well, that was something she could understand, the battle had been intense and he had already used the majority of his Authorities. A Campione's reserves of power might be vast, but that didn't mean they were infinite. She herself could feel her own reservoirs of Qi begin to bottom out and she'd had decades to train and expand her already enormous pool of power. Truly the fact that King Godou had managed to keep up with her to this point spoke volumes of just how tenacious a man he was. Without a doubt her choice to accept him as a sworn sibling had been one of the best that she'd had in decades, as was to be expected of her.

What was somewhat more worrying was that King Shirou had been able to match them up to this point, indeed he seemed to be doing a bit better than either of them in that regard, given what she thought she could sense from him. Still she'd been aware that he had large reserves even among Campione, it had been something she'd determined about him during their initial meeting. Her thought was that since he'd already practiced his magic before he became a God Slayer then the act of becoming one had multiplied those reserves to vast amounts. Luo Hao knew her own reserves to be greater than those of her sworn brother or King Salvatore Doni, but that was due to her being the senior Campione and her having expanded her Qi reserves through martial arts even before she became a King.

Still all that wasn't enough to account for that disparity now, after all King Shirou was up against two God Slayers. The real difference was that unlike both of them the King of Steel had been able to avoid having any of his Authorities broken apart from the Bloodstained Fields. She had herself lost her Defending Godsword to Shirou's black blade and the avatars of Divine Might of Vajrapani to King Godou's Stallion Authority both of which had cost her reserves dearly. Godou had lost his Boar and his Chariot, though both had not cost as much as her own losses, but he'd also employed far more Authorities than her. By using those recreated magic weapons King Shirou had been able to draw out the use of his own reserves and now had them backed into something of a corner. The fact that in his current state he was able to draw his power reserves out to a level that would normally be beyond him did nothing to help matters.

However her Eminence, the undisputed Ruler of the Martial Realm, was not one to come unprepared. To be sure she hadn't anticipated that the eighth Campione would be able to push her and her sworn brother to this degree, but she had still planned for the possibility.

"King Godou, I shall now use the Apple." She declared as she drew closer.

The first Japanese King blinked at her, then his face flushed as realization of what she was saying dawned on him.

"Are . . . Are you sure about that Nee-san? Perhaps we-"

The Ruler of the Martial Realm had no time for her younger brother's sudden timidity.

"Maiden that dwells within the orchard, tricked and stolen, changed and returned. The blessing that even the gods do crave is mine to grant, mine to keep, mine to use."

As the words were spoken a golden globe of energy appeared in her hand, then moulded itself into the form of an apple with a stalk and a couple of leafs just as it had in their earlier planning session at King Shirou's manor. This time though the apple that she called forth had been 'growing' within her for more than twenty four hours. It didn't simply glow like the last one had; it shone like a miniature sun.

With a single movement Luo Hao pressed it against Godou's chest. The young man let out a gasp of surprise and went momentarily as still as a statue, but the effects upon him were immediately visible. The remains of the wounds that had been inflicted upon him vanished in an instant leaving behind only smooth unmarked skin. The fatigue that had previously been in his posture faded away like frost before the noonday sun. Through her mystic sense she felt his reserves of power refill and re-energize. The Authority had performed its task, her brother had been returned to his full strength, even his used Authorities were now regenerated and ready for use once more.

"Thanks Nee-san, now we can-"

Once again the elder God Slayer cut him off, though this time it was in a completely different manner. Before King Godou could react she seized the front of his shirt and dragged him to her. He barely had time to begin a squeak of protest before her lips sealed themselves to his.

This was the other part of the plan; since the Revitalization Authority could not heal her they would have to resort to other means to refill her own drained reserves. What she'd come up with was to use a lesser known Daoist spell that would allow her to drain the vitality of a victim to regain her lost stores of power. It was a spell that she'd never used, having only learnt it so as to complete her education of all the Daoist mystic arts, but it could be modified to suit her purposes.

And that was what she was doing now. Of course given the legendary Magic Resistance of a Campione the kiss was the only way that she could apply the skill to her younger brother, a fact that had made her blush as a maiden but which hadn't stopped her.

The altered spell that she used didn't try to consume Godou's life force, but instead tapped into his newly restored reserves of magic. The spell was not intended for battle since it was fairly fragile, and had her sworn sibling wished he could have easily broken the drain, but for the task it was performing it was more than adequate. Now she could feel the smooth flow of his power passing to her, adding to her own flagging reserves at a most excellent speed.

And speed was important. Any moment now King Shirou would recover and the battle would be on once more, they had to use these precious few seconds to the best that they could.

In the end she took approximately one third of his replenished reserves before she broke the connection and stepped back. When added to what she'd still had that brought her up to just about half of her full capacity. With King Godou having been healed and restored she was sure that would be more than enough to secure their victory.

Turning away from the younger Campione so he couldn't see the blush that adorned her cheeks the Ruler of the Martial Realm oriented herself upon their enthralled foe.

He stood some distance off, far enough away that even with the speed of his Authority he couldn't cross it easily. He seemed to have Traced several copies of the same weapon and had stabbed them into the ground about him. However whatever strategy he might have bee planning had been halted by the appearance of the beautiful figure that stood beside him.

It was the goddess that had been at his side when he'd first arrived. The same goddess that had captured his mind and commanded him to engage in this reckless battle merely for her entertainment. She stood beside him, her face glowing with exultation and a curious mixture of lust and hunger.


-()-


It was taking much of Venus's willpower not to simply spirit her toy away and take him back to her chambers so that she could order him to ravish her until neither of them could move.

Still, she was able to contain her lust with the thought that once more she'd be able to have no passion. Instead she continued to watch the battle and made plans to acquire a handsome young man or three to help her 'deal' with her rising ardour as soon as this entertainment ended.

And what entertainment it was. The might of Kings pitted against each other, the clash of the powers they had usurped; there could be no finer spectacle that the entire world could offer. She had watched with relish as power after power had met, contested and broken. One Authority after another had been used and her excitement and exhilaration climbed as she observed her conquered puppet compete against the other two God Slayers. She watched with satisfied awe as he employed weapons, armours and powers of various types to counter and attack them.

So, this was the power of the King of Steel, this was the power of the King that had slain her warlike lover. The sight of the huge armoured form that her toy had used to slay the great boar and to battle the two golden giants had sent shivers down her spine. That, she knew, was what Mordred had been trying to become but had never been able to. The thought that his slayer had been able to usurp and complete the transformation to Steel that the Knight of Betrayal hadn't been able to achieve despite centuries of effort had brought a smile to her lips. Oh what a delicious irony that had been.

There had been other parts of the battle that had been puzzling to her though. The black sword that her thrall had wielded at the start of the battle had been one such enigma. Such a mighty Authority should have been recognizable to her, but for some reason she hadn't been able to divine its nature, yet at the same time she was sure that she should recognize it. Its name had been maddeningly on the tip of her tongue and yet had remained stubbornly out of reach.

That had bothered her, and that sense of unease had only been compounded as her captured King had used other weapon Authorities that she hadn't been able to quite recognize. It had been that sense of uncertainty that had led her to conceal herself rather than stand out on the edge of the battlefield and glory in the chaos she had wrought. Given how rapidly things had escalated and the sheer power of some of the Authorities being used Venus had decided that this had been an excellent move upon her part. With the vast majority of her power tied up in keeping King Shirou as her thrall she probably would have been vulnerable to a surprise attack by either the Campione or their allies.

Still now was the time for her to step out onto the stage and take her place. After all it would hardly do for the players to forget the female lead in this epic now would it?

However she was less than pleased with the current situation. When she'd first elected to appear by her puppet's side she'd felt that the odds had been in his favour. Both his enemies were exhausted and his own reserves, though taxed, were considerable higher than theirs. She'd thought that she could stand at his side and glory in her dominion over him as he annihilated his worn foes. Now, though, they were recovered and re-energized while her own pawn was now the one with the exhausted reserves.

Ah well, it was true that she'd rather have been standing at the side of the glorious victor of this battle, but watching a glorious defeat would be equally satisfying. After all under the influence of her Authority the red haired young King would fight to the very last even if it did mean his death. If he was suitably spectacular in his fall then she was sure that it would prove as fine a show as his victory. Let him run wild in his last moments, she would retreat to hide in spirit form and enjoy the show that would emerge.

"Tell me Shirou," she said, her voice echoing across the battleground despite its low volume. "Do you still have some great power to show me? Some trump card that you have as yet not played?"

The young King's face remained blank as before, but he did nod his head once.

"Splendid!" Venus enthused, her beautiful features radiant despite her cruel smile, "Show me then, use your greatest power and bring your foes low. I, Venus, demand that you provide me with a magnificent spectacle to watch, even if it means your death."

There was a pause as Shirou turned to look at her, an action that seemed to be unusual for him given his warped state of mind. After fixing his eyes upon her for a several seconds he nodded once more, then turned to face the other two Campione.

"I am the bone of my Sword."

His voice echoed across the devastated battlefield, carrying in much the same way Venus's had, but with a deeper note as well as more gravity.


-()-


Illya had felt a surge of joy when the field had collapsed. The flash of light had been blinding, but as soon as her eyes had cleared she'd spotted Luo Hao rather fiercely kissing Godou, not a sight that caught her too off guard since she was aware of the plan to refill the Campione's Prana reserves. What did catch her by surprise was the quiet 'Hmmm' of disapproval and irritation that came from Yuri.

"I know that it is disheartening to see our Lord toy with the heart of yet another woman," Liliana stated as she laid a conciliatory hand upon her friend's, "Still we must accept that he is a lecher without peer, a man that will play around with the hearts of girls without even realizing that he's doing so. That is the undeniable truth that we must look full in the face."

Honestly Illya wasn't sure if the Blue Knight was defending her lord or condemning him. Well, whatever the case that wasn't her concern at the moment. Though maybe later she'd have a review of how many Harem Troupes the seventh Campione and his girls were hitting. Purely as an intellectual exercise of course.

With a shake of her head she dismissed the oddly appealing thought and focussed herself back upon the situation at hand. At a guess she'd say that things were definitely beginning to favour the two allied Campione. With Godou's Authorities restored to him they had received an immense boost in firepower and the refilling of their reserves was also a critical factor. All they had to do was immobilize Shirou for just a little bit, then Godou could use the Rule Breaker he had to hopefully break the spells controlling her Onii-chan's mind.

Granted it was easier said than done, but Shirou had used several of his most powerful Authorities. Right now the only major threat left in his arsenal of divine abilities was Curses without End, and if they could break that one it would guarantee them the opening they needed to free him.

It was then that she heard the words of the beautiful goddess echo across the battlefield.

". . . then, use your greatest power and bring your foes low. I, Venus, demand that you provide me with a magnificent spectacle to watch, even if it means your death."

Not good, not good at all.

That order meant that any restraint that Shirou's clouded mind had been exercising to this point would be gone. With that command from Venus he'd be-

Wait, she'd said Venus?

That was it! That was the identity of the bitch that had enslaved her beloved adopted brother. In a single violent movement the snow haired girl rounded on Mariya Yuri and fixed her with a penetrating stare.

"Have you seen her nature? Would you be able to pass it on to King Godou if you needed to?"

The young girl's voice was hard as iron and actually made the brown haired Hime-Miko recoil slightly as she shook her head.

"Not yet, but I'm close. I just need a bit more time."

Even without the Bloodstained Fields egging her on Illya felt a rush of irritation at the denial of the answer she wanted. She tamped it down though, after all she was well aware that Spirit Vision, while a potent power, was none the less an unreliable ability. From the information that she'd received it seemed to only have a 30% chance of success, and using it multiple times rapidly was exhausting. Now that she looked at the elder of the Mariya sisters she saw that there were definite signs of tiredness in her posture, her eyes were bloodshot and a thin sheen of sweat was forming on her forehead.

She really was giving it her best; she might even be pushing herself to the point where it was dangerous. Glancing at the two Italian knights she voiced her other hope.

"I don't suppose either of you are aware of all of Venus's history?"

"Sadly the main subject of my own studies was Athena," Erica stated, her face mildly irritated, "I had made some headway into the history of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Hades, but none of those are applicable at this point."

"I'm aware of Venus's connection to Aphrodite and Ishtar, but I haven't the detailed knowledge that would be of aid to Kusanagi Godou." Liliana added, her own face unhappy with the situation.

"Maybe you cou-"

"I am the bone of my Sword."

The Einzbern heir's half formed thought was cut off as the voice of her adopted brother echoed across the battlefield, a sign that he would begin his attack once more.

Alright, Venus had ordered him to use his greatest power. What was that? Arguably his most powerful remaining Authority was Curses without End, but the real question was how he would employ it, given the flexible nature of the malignant Authority.

At a guess, if he was being reckless with his remaining reserves and had no concern beyond following the heretic Goddess's order, then he'd probably employ the Black Knight's Amour in combination with Curses without End. The mist of curses that was produced by the two Authorities working together was potent, extremely so. What made it even worse was that it would affect both Luo Hao and Godou because they'd end up breathing the curses in as they choked on the air. Even if the Campione fought while holding their breaths it would be a crippling enough limit that it would grant Shirou a serious advantage.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood."

Once more the quiet voice reached across the battlefield as Shirou began to slowly advance upon the two God Slayers that stood before him. For their part the second and Seventh Campione didn't move, instead they settled into loose stances and waited for him to come to them.

"I have been forged as if a thousand blades."

That wasn't a line that she'd heard him use before. She knew that Shirou had been making some progress in improving his Tracing, but as far as she knew he hadn't advanced beyond the second line of his Aria. Still this meant that he was also going to use a Traced weapon as part of the final attack. That made a certain degree of sense since using the Black Knight's Armour meant that the Dragon Slaying Hero was no longer available to him. The armour might provide a boost to his physical abilities, but it wasn't on a level with what the heroic Authority granted. However if he Traced something like Arondight or another such weapon then that weakness would be covered or even overshadowed altogether.

Both of the Kings had been aware that this was a possibility since the notes Shirou had left had mentioned that particular strategy. A tentative counter had been for Luo Cuilian to use her wind Authority to scatter the fog of curses long enough for Godou to take advantage of the opening. The problem was that they hadn't thought to include a Noble Phantasm as an altering factor given that the Ruler of the Martial Realm had still been sceptical as to the level of threat that the weapons posed.

The real question was which Noble Phantasms he'd Trace. Arondight, as a fallen holy sword, had a good degree of compatibility with Curses without End, but if Shirou was going all out then he'd probably be wielding two swords, so that begged the question as to which other sword he'd use.

Perhaps . . . Excalibur Morgan?

That made a worrying amount of sense. The sword of Sir Lancelot was one of the most powerful weapons in Shirou's arsenal and the use of the corrupted version of its brother sword in tandem with it was a frightening thought to contemplate. On top of that was the fact that the corrupted version of the Sword of Promised Victory probably had a high degree of compatibility with the Authority gained from Angra Mainyu. If that was the case then it might well be able to mix the fog of curses into the huge prana output it was capable of, the whole thing might be intensely taxing to Shirou but the end result might well be apocalyptic to all in range.

The question was; what could she do? A spell to warn the Campione? Send her false Berserker charging in there to try to create an opening? There were several options open to her, but the problem was that none of them seemed to be all that useful. She needed to think of something else, something that could be-

"Refined and forged, hammered and tempered."

Another line? What could he be planning to Trace? He already had Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands so . . .

No.

NO!

The thought that struck her was enough to make her eyes bulge as she stared at her adopted brother's form.

No, he couldn't be trying that, it was insane, it was suicidal . . . and it was also exactly what Venus had asked for wasn't it? Shirou's greatest power, a magnificent spectacle, wasn't that exactly what he would be providing?

But surely he couldn't not even if he was in a state of mind that would lead him to push at his limits until he broke upon them. To do that required him to shift him mentality away from what was human to such a huge degree. Shirou was better now, wasn't he? He'd managed to let go of the ideal that had led her father to his ruin and might have one day ruined him. Oh, he still honoured it, the idea that it wasn't wrong to help others, but Shirou wasn't as consumed by it as he'd once been.

Wasn't he?

But . . . but even if he was that didn't change the fact that his mentality was too human for this to work. His perception of the world was just too human.

Except . . .

Except that right now his mind wasn't really his own, it wasn't in its proper form. What had Venus done to him to put him under her control? Had she changed his mind in some way? Was his perception of the world still that of a human?

A sudden lead ball began to form in her guts as a terrible certainty grew within her.


-()-


"So, Venus has taken the field once more. Will you be making your move now beloved child?"

The red eyes of the Witch Queen didn't move from her target even as she answered.

"Guinevere would dearly love to; however at this moment Venus is too guarded. Should I try to attack her she will vanish into the spirit world too fast for even Sir Knight's lance to catch her."

It was quite clear that the queen of the Divine Ancestors was far from happy with that fact. Indeed had the daggers she was glaring at the Heretic Goddess been manifested into reality they might well have put King Godou's earlier flood of swords to shame.

". . . and forged, hammered and tempered."

The words of the enthralled King reached up to them where they waited upon one of the great structures that overlooked the battleground, the sound of them borne up by one of Guinevere's spells.

"That is the same boast that he spoke to Mordred," she commented to the spectral form of her protector, "When he told him that Sir Shirou was the strongest steel the Black Knight lost all composure."

She smiled as the memory crossed her mind. The sight of her tormentor breaking down into rage and denial still brought a warm feeling to her heart.

"There is something more here." Lancelot's tone brought her out of her recollections. It was most unusual for him to sound so serious; normally his tone was much lighter, even in the midst of battle. Now there was a definite note of . . . not worry or fear, wariness perhaps, as though he saw something that he knew to be dangerous but could not see in its entirety.

"There is power in his words. No, not merely power. There is Steel in this chant. It is the same Steel that fills him."

"Steel in his words?" the golden haired immortal child looked up at her knight.

"Indeed, this knight is unsure of how the young God Slayer is achieving it, but he is somehow imparting the essence of Steel into this chant of his."

"Given form, given purpose, I continue to my arrival."

Guinevere's head whipped around to focus upon Sir Shirou once more. Something had been wrong with that last line that he'd spoken; the words had been strained, almost choked. With a silently cast spell she enhanced her vision to get a closer look at him.

Shirou had stopped in his charge and for the first time since the battle had begun there was an expression upon the red haired Campione's face. The blankness had broken and been replaced by what could only be called anguish. Sweat was pouring down his face and veins bulged at his temples.

"I . . . I have . . ."

A tear of blood leaked from one eye and ran down the side of his face.

"I . . ."

The weapons he held fell from his hands as tremors and twitches ran through his body so violently it almost looked as though he were having a fit.

"I . . . Iiiieeeeaaaarrrghhhhh!"

Whatever he was trying to say was lost as he threw his head back and screamed in pain.


-()-


The remnant of Emiya Shirou could not fully grasp what was happening to it, after all how can an entity robbed of its sense of self understand that its mind was cracking and fracturing from the strain that was being placed upon it? All it knew was that it had to follow the order that had been given by Her; there was literally nothing else to it.

There was no light, no sight, no physical experience, but the tiny remnant automatically translated the forces it was experiencing into something that a human mind could have comprehended. After all small and broken though it might have been the remnant was still something born of a human mind.

Its eyeballs were being squashed.

Its blood flowed backwards.

Its limbs were paralysed and unmoving.

What was left of its mind was bleached white, even the pearl sheen being consumed by the all destroying wind of steel that not even the Authority of Luo Hao could have ever managed.

There was no pain though; feeling and enduring pain was too human an experience to happen here, not on this plane of the mind.

Emiya Shirou was dying; there was no other way to describe it. With his mind and reason consumed by the appetite of the Heart Thief the remnant of him could do nothing more than follow the order to use his greatest power. But that power was beyond the reach of the young Emiya as he was, with some years of training and experience he might have been able to manage it, but right here, right now, to attempt it was suicide.

His mind was melting, the last remnant of himself crumbling to nothing. Soon his body would follow, the mind's death would echo into the flesh and the organs that sustained life would simply shut down. Emiya Shirou would die without a single deadly wound, his life simply ending without cause that could be found.

"Ano . . . I really see you under the strangest circumstances don't I?"

The voice was sweet and warm, and utterly out of place in the midst of this icy steel wind.

"I don't think I've ever had one of my children come here like this, normally it's only when they use some Authority so that they can escape death that they pay their mother a visit. Still, I did say that you'd possess the destiny of the strangest of all the Devil Kings, didn't I?"

Somehow the comforting voice was . . . riding upon the wind, staying atop it without effort or difficulty. The sound of that voice touched something deep within the remnant, something that had been taken by the Heart Thief but which had none the less left an impression of its presence behind.

"Well anyway, you're in a fine pickle here aren't you? That strumpet witch has made you her servant and now she's going to break your mind if you're not careful."

The voice sounded upset, as though the speaker were pouting and getting ready to stamp their foot in frustration. His mind was going to break? How could his . . . his . . . what was his? His . . . him, who was him? Who, he . . .

The remnant of the eighth Campione struggled against the shards of self that were being impressed upon it by the very force that would soon cause its destruction. The wind roared on crushing down upon the small and fragile remains of the King of Steel's mind and there was nothing it could do. How could a mind struggle and act when it wasn't even aware of itself? Bereft of all its strength due to the poisonous influence of Venus's Authority the crumbling remnant could do nothing but fall before the wind as it was slowly scoured from existence.

"Oh, and who's this?"

And suddenly there was something unbelievable, something impossible.

He was standing.

He was standing in the wind and facing it.

The steel wind had no effect on him; he simply stood there and faced it, his red coat billowing behind him.

The remnant knew that it should know who this was, it might not know itself but the memory of this figure was one that it knew it should know even if it did not know why. The red coat, the white hair, the tanned skin, the very presence of the figure all but shouted something at the remnant that it didn't have the needed aspects to understand.

The red knight seemed to take no notice of the pitiful remnant behind him; instead he faced the wind his face turned slightly to show a stern expression upon his features. He stood in the face of that wind and gave not an inch.

Something . . . broke within the remnant, or perhaps it mended, in this strange world and in the face of the wind of steel there was no way to be sure. All that was certain was that the remnant knew something, some connection that it couldn't put into any kind of comprehensible manner, but which it knew none the less with an iron hard certainty.

". . . can you keep up with me?"

The words carried on the wind, words spoken with both scorn for the one they were spoken to and belief in the same person. He simply stood there and waited as the words registered with the remnant.

". . . it's not 'can you keep up with me' . . ."

Again something fused together within the remnant, but this time there was a reaction. The form that was crumbling suddenly firmed, limbs that were withering away tensed and moved, eyes that were dulling sharpened, fire roared through a body that was growing cold with death. A foot stepped forward and arms moved, cutting through the wind like giant swords.

"You keep up with me!"

The remnant moved, passing by the figure in red and diving straight into the teeth of the wind. The words had come from nowhere, but they had been correct. Emiya Shirou might have been reduced to this remnant that had been on the verge of breaking, but at his core Emiya Shirou was good strong iron and steel, even if he was broken he could be reforged, and not even the Authority of a god could change that steel centre of him.

"Oh ho ho! How wonderful!" the warm voice enthused as the remnant cut into the wind, "I wonder if that vain goddess has any idea of what she's messing with in dealing with you."

With those words the voice faded into the roar of the steel wind, but the remnant paid it no mind. Ahead there was a light, sooty and red with the colour of cinders that glowed, the light formed into an enormous orb that called for the remnant to come to it.

What remained of Emiya Shirou did not pause, but instead continued to charge into the wind as it tore past the light.

That was not the one.

Another light came up ahead, this one the colour of dusk on a clear day. It hung in the path of the remnant like a sun that had dimmed in order to rest.

Once more the remains of Emiya Shirou did not pause but instead continued on even as the wind of steel tore at it with renewed ferocity.

Then there was a third light, but this one did not form into an orb, rather it spread until it filled the world and yet remained tantalizingly out of the remnant's reach. The wind seemed to be tearing at the remains of Emiya Shirou, no longer trying to crush it but rather seeking to rip it into shreds. The steel in the wind was now blades, blades that cut and tore and tried to destroy.

But Emiya Shirou endured.

The remnant bled and broke but it did not stop. Compelled by the order it had been given and the strange fire within it that it knew not the origins of it pressed on, it endured and it achieved.

Its 'hand' touched the light.

The light consumed the world.


-()-


The scream of anguish that had echoed across the battlefield suddenly cut off as though it had been sliced away with a knife.

Illya was stock still, frozen in place as she stared at where her adopted brother stood, his head bowed. The other two Campione were also unmoving, apparently unsure of what to do in the face of the eighth Campione's strange behaviour.

"I have no regrets; this is the path I chose."

As the line was spoken Shirou's head came up. There was something different about him now, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. He seemed more . . . animated, alive. His face was still that same blank mask that it had been for almost all the battle, but now there was a hint that there was something behind that mask, something that hadn't been there before.

But that didn't matter. What was important was stopping him.

"STOP HIM!" Her scream rang across the battlefield as she manifested her false Berserker and was preparing to send it charging at where Shirou stood. "DON'T LET HIM FINISH!"

"I-I've got it." Yuri's own soft shout was so quiet that the snow haired young Magus almost missed it. "I've got the knowledge on Venus that weEEEE!"

Her last word turned into a cry of surprise as the huge form of the imitation Servant reached out and picked her up in one hand as though she weighed no more than a kitten.

"Then give it to Godou, NOW!"

As soon as Illya had finished practically snarling her instruction the puppet Berserker took off towards where the seventh Campione stood, its feet slamming into the dirt hard enough to kick up clouds of dust as it went.

"Hey! Don't be mean to Yuri-chan like that." The protest came from Ena who was now openly glaring at the Einzbern heir.

"If we don't free Onii-chan before he finishes that chant then we're all dead, do you understand?"

The sheer vehemence in Illya's voice seemed to take all present by surprise.

"Is it some Authority that he hasn't used?" Lu Yinghua enquired as he stepped closer to the group.

"No," Illya admitted as she turned back to stare at the battle. Godou must have seen her false Servant bringing the brown haired Hime-Miko to him because he was staying back while Luo Hao was engaging Shirou at a distance with the use of her wind Authority once more. "It's the final form of the magic that let him become a Campione in the first place.

Actually, now that she thought about it, she didn't know that much about the Reality marble that Shirou possessed. No, that wasn't true, she knew quite a bit about how her adopted brother was able to use his internal world to aid him with his Tracing, rather it was more accurate to say that she wasn't too familiar with the final form that that world would take if it were manifested. Shirou had briefly told her about the Reality Marble that Archer and another version of himself had been able to achieve, but he'd also said that he couldn't access those worlds because his Reality Marble was fundamentally different.

"He . . . he slew a god with an incomplete mortal magic?"

There was no disguising the disbelief in Erica's tone, understandable she supposed.

"He-"

A thunderous cracking noise erupted across the combat zone drowning out anything else that Illya might have said. Whipping her head back she saw that Shirou had used Overedge on his Noble Phantasms once more so the black and white swords had grown into their larger razor feathered forms.

And he was using those oversized blade to cut the wind that Luo Hao was sending against him.

She had to blink once or twice to make sure that she was actually seeing what she thought she saw. Yet despite the impossibility of what she was seeing it none the less stubbornly refused to change. Ripples of distortion ran through the air from the Ruler of the Martial Realm to the King of Steel, visual tells of the attacks she was sending at him. Yet as each ripple came at him Shirou swung the enlarged swords that he held at it and it was as though the very air was cracking.

Something was happening now, in flashes of golden light swords were appearing, not in his hands, but rather in the ground itself. Each blade was stabbed into the earth and stood upright with all the grim reality of tombstones.

In a single sudden movement the red haired young teen ceased to defend against the Chinese Campione's attacks and instead threw both the swords he held at her. Despite their ragged form the two Noble Phantasms flew straight as arrows and Luo Cuilian was forced to break off her attack as she dodged to the side to avoid being struck.

"My strongest steel lies in . . ."

That break in her offence was all that Shirou needed. Standing as tall and proud as the King he was named to be the King of Steel raised his right arm so that his forearm crossed his chest and his outstretched hand was just above his left shoulder. About his feet the ground seemed to disappear into a golden glow so bright that it was almost blinding. Thin streams of crimson energy as insubstantial as mist rose from the glow giving the illusion that Illya's adopted brother was standing in a furnace.

". . . Unlimited Blade Works."

The hand came down and across in a motion as though he were pulling aside some invisible curtain, as it did so it left fire behind it, a burning sheet of gold and crimson.

It was as though that fire somehow ignited the golden light upon which he stood, Shirou was lost to her sight as the inferno obscured him, but she had barely enough time to note that before the fire was suddenly spreading in a blazing wall that seemed to consume the world. About her the others let out cries of alarm, but she ignored them. Instinct overrode thought and her arms came up to once more shield her face as the wall of fire came at her, but even as it washed over her she felt only a sharp heat rather than a scorching inferno.

Her arm lowered and she gazed at the world about her.

Illya might not be as fanatical a follower of the ways of thaumaturgy as some of those in her family, but she was still a Magus of a fairly traditional bent and as such thirsted for knowledge on the Mysteries of others. And this . . . this was a Mystery that almost never manifested in humans. This was a Magecraft so rare that it verged upon the realms of the fabled True Magics.

With wide eyes she beheld the world that existed within Emiya Shirou.


-()-


Godou hadn't waited for Yuri to say anything; as soon as the grey giant had set her down before him he'd immediately pressed his mouth to hers. The Hime-Miko must have also been prepared, despite the unusual nature of the transport that got her here, because as soon as their lips made contact he could feel the knowledge of Venus's origin flowing into him.

". . . Unlimited Blade Works."

The sound of those words was enough to bring him back to the situation at hand. He barely had enough time to look up from where he was holding Yuri to see the oncoming wall of flames. Instinctively he pulled her close to him and turned so he could shield her from the inferno, but as it washed over him he felt no pain or pressure.

Then he opened his eyes and beheld the world about him.

The first thing that came to mind was that it must be an Authority similar to his Warrior with a Golden Sword Authority since it had created a new space. The ruined park, the nearby river and the surrounding buildings had all disappeared. In their place was a strangely lit plain beneath an equally strange sky.

The plain was lightly covered in greenery, not the same lush fields of green that the Bloodstained Fields had boasted. This was the kind of grass that grew in harsh conditions, surviving in places where it wasn't expected to be found. Here it grew in clumps and patches that were spread amongst equally frequent bare spots of sandy soil. The plain surrounded a single hill and the closer one got to it the more frequent the grass became until one reached it and saw that the whole hill was covered in a thin covering of the rugged pasture.

The fields were illuminated by a strangely bright horizon that had no visible sun. It was a dawn where the sun had yet to rise, but where its light was none the less strong and visible. The dawn cast shadows upon the few clouds that appeared in the sky, and it also cast shadows upon the gears.

Oh, those colossal, incomprehensible gears.

When the seventh Campione had first seen them he hadn't been able to believe what his eyes were showing him was there. Such things just couldn't be possible, and this was coming from one that had faced gods, the living dead, and mythological creatures, one who had done the impossible in slaying a god and claiming their power. Yet despite these experiences it took him several seconds to wrap his mind around just what he was seeing.

The gears hung in the air in utter defiance of gravity. And their mockery of that natural law must have been immense because there was no other way those huge behemoth constructs could have been suspended thusly. Each gear was gigantic, huge on a scale beyond anything that he'd ever seen. Due to the angle of the sun a cloud had its shadow cast upon one of the gears. As he saw that cloud as well as the shadow that it cast Godou's treacherously logical mind couldn't help but try to calculate what it meant. The cloud was small but thick, so it must be from a high altitude, with that in mind it could also easily be seen so it had to be at least thirty to fifty metres in length. If one took into account the angle of the light and then worked out how that affected the casting of its shadow and then compared it to the size of the gear it was being cast upon . . .

Godou's mind came to a screeching halt as the numbers lined themselves up in his mind. Granted he wasn't particularly talented in maths, but he remembered enough of the lessons that he'd been forced to sit through by the public education system that he had at least a vague idea of what he was doing. But the numbers, they were beyond belief.

Kilometres, that was what those huge slowly turning gears had to be measured in, kilometres. He couldn't even begin to estimate how much they must weigh, how many thousands of millions of tonnes of metal must make up their huge forms. And yet for all their immensity they hug in the sky as unconcerned with their weight as the stars or the clouds.

Tearing his eyes away from the vast clockwork that dominated the heavens Godou took another look about him and was suddenly struck by two details that he'd previously missed.

The first was the cherry blossoms. They seemed to fall from nowhere and yet there was a constant slow fall of the drifting pink petals. They fell from the sky as gently as a soft snowfall and yet faded from view just as they touched the ground, an eternal fall that never ended. It was oddly beautiful in a strangely ethereal manner.

The second detail was the swords, the swords that stuck out of the ground everywhere. Some were vertical; some were tilted to the side. Some leaned on others as though without that support both would have fallen. And there were so many of them. As far as the eye could see they were rising from the ground throughout the endless field in every direction, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, numbers beyond counting.

For a moment he had a feeling that this . . . place was in some way similar to the space he created with his own Authority, but that thought last only for an instant. The multitude of golden swords that he created with the divine power were all uniform, all of a single type, there might be some minor variations in them, but by and large they were all mostly identical. These swords though, no matter where he looked none of them were the same. Broadswords, katanas, scimitars, roman gladii, every manner of sword type and style was here, each a magnificent example of its type and each one utterly unique. And interspersed among the swords were other weapons, a mace and chain, a lance, a Japanese Kusarigama, a gladiator's trident, weapons of all shapes and sizes rested amidst the seemingly endless ranks of standing swords.

No, there was something about this endless vista of weapons that was different to his own Authority. There was a . . . realness, a reality to them that was not present with the golden swords that he created. Those weapons were mighty and powerful, but they weren't real swords, rather they were shards of divine power in the shape of blades. They had not been forged as these had, they hadn't been heated in fire, hammered by steel, shaped by effort. None of them had the same feeling of weight, of history, that radiated from each and every weapon before him.

"I-Illya-san, what is this?"

He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of Liliana's voice just off to his left. Turning his head he saw that everyone wasn't proportionately where they had been before the world had changed; now his friends and allies were scattered about him, but much closer than they had been before. Off to one side Lu Yinghua stood near to his Master and teacher, off to the other side Manaka stood near to Shirou's adopted sister and carefully held the still unconscious form of Kaida in her arms.

"This is a Reality Marble!" Illya declared, her hands closing into fists even as the grey giant appeared once more behind her. "It's an innate bounded field that allows for one's inner world to be materialized and projected onto reality following the World Egg theory. It's a magic so inhuman that only six humans in recorded history have managed to achieve it, most just die or go mad."

Godou could honestly say that he didn't understand a word of that. 'Bounded Field', 'World Egg theory', as far as he was concerned the snowy haired girl might as well have been reciting ancient Egyptian poetry for all the sense it was making to him. He was well aware that his own knowledge of magic was pretty limited, but he was fairly confident of his instincts, and right now they were telling him that the situation was dire.

So he took the best path that he could see. Shirou was a threat, but he was only a threat because he was under the control of this Venus. Therefore if he broke that control then he'd no longer be a threat. It was a simple and slightly barbaric logic, but at this point in time the seventh Campione honestly couldn't see much of a flaw with it. Unwrapping his arms from around Yuri he stepped forwards placing himself between the King of Steel and those behind him.

He was aiming for the Heretic Goddess, obviously Shirou would move to defend her, but if he used his swords correctly then he could pin his fellow King down once more while he sent the rest of his sword to cut apart Venus's divinity. His fellow Japanese Campione might have created all these swords, but he still only had two hands to hold them with so he was limited in how many he could use.

For a moment his mind summoned up an image from an anime that he'd seen the other day. Maybe Shirou would grip a third sword in his teeth so that he'd have one more weapon to wield. The image was absurd, but for some reason it nagged at him.

Shaking his head he focused on the beautiful goddess and began to speak.

"Heed the power of my words, let justice reveal itself, under the strength and eloquence of this incantation, for strength is ever victorious, for strength is the answer to all things."

As the spell words were spoken the great curved golden blade once more appeared in his hand. The ground about him glowed with the same golden radiance that suffused the blade; it began to spread as more of the swords of gold materialized about h-

Something was wrong.

The closest thing he could think of to describe what he was feeling was that his Authority was grinding against something. Like two huge cogs being driven in opposite directions by unimaginably powerful machines he could feel the power of his Authority clashing with that of this . . . whatever this was. More swords appeared around him but the small glowing area on which he stood seemed to spread and contract erratically as it fought against the Reality Marble.

"Venus was a goddess of love and beauty that the Romans took from the Greek myths of Aphrodite."

As he intoned the words Godou could feel the power of them beginning to infuse the sword he held as well as all the other golden blades that hovered in the air about him. In front of him Shirou hadn't moved, he just stood there amidst the weapons impaled into the ground, his face as blank as before and his arms hanging at his side.

"Aphrodite was herself derived from the more ancient goddess of Babylon; Ishtar."

The spell words were gathering momentum now as more and more swords formed about him. The shining area beneath him seemed to be spreading as it oscillated in size less erratically, its growth was still painfully slow, but it was there.

"Ishtar was the goddess of love and war, of fertility and violence; she represented the two opposing extremes, the creation of life as well as its ending."

"Such a cruel young man, to dredge up a lady's long forgotten past."

The comment from the Heretic Goddess sounded more irritated than anything else, as though someone were speaking about some foolish act that she'd perpetrated as a child.

Taking the initiative Godou sent a sword shooting towards her like an arrow. However as it passed the eighth Campione there was a flash of steel and the golden blade exploded into pieces as it was struck by the sword suddenly in Shirou's hand.

"However like Athena you were cast down from your place as one of the mightiest divinities by a rebellion of the male deities."

He'd expected the enthralled King to move to defend her, but that was fine he could deal with that. The words he was speaking were feeding his Authority and more and more swords were materializing around him, first dozens and now hundreds.

"The aspect of violence that Ishtar possessed was taken from her and given to the incompetent god of war Ares while you became Aphrodite, a far less fearsome goddess."

This was it, he now had more than a thousand of the swords ready and more were forming with every word he spoke. In a moment he'd release them and send them falling upon Shirou and Venus like a rain of blades. The red haired King might try to defend his controller, but against so many weapons there wouldn't be much he could do.

"Aphrodite became Venus and Venus became the name of the morning star that had always been closely associated with Ishtar!"

This time he didn't simply launch the swords, he charged forward himself, the swords he'd created following his movements and becoming a huge spearhead with him at its centre. As soon as he got close to Shirou he'd dodge to the side as he sent the majority of the swords to attack him, that would give Godou the chance to get past him and attack Venus with the rest of his swords.

The eighth Campione didn't move from where he stood, instead he simply extended one arm as though reaching for something in the air in front of him and slightly above head height. Then his slightly opened fingers clenched into a fist.

CHSHING!

The young Kusanagi's charge was broken as a sword fell from the sky and slammed into the ground just in front of him. No, it didn't fall; it came down as though it were an arrow fired by some great bow. It went straight through one of the swords making up the tip of his 'spearhead' shattering it into fragments and hitting the ground with enough force to form a small crater. That same force also caused Godou to miss his step and come to a stumbling halt as he tried to regain his balance.

KCHINK! CRRIKCH!

His head whipped round as another two swords came down, smashing more of the golden swords.

KSHIRRK! SHRCKK! KRRITSH!

More swords came down about him as more of his Authority was destroyed. Bewildered and dazed by the sudden rain of steel coming down about him Godou looked up to try and see their source.

Above him those gargantuan gears turned, silent despite their colossal size, and as he looked at them he saw the swords. 'So many of them', that was the only thought that went through his mind as he saw them. At first he thought they were a mist up near those gears, then he thought they were birds of some sort, then he saw them for what they really were.

Swords, swords in such great number that as they fell they seemed to blot out the sky. Swords, he realized, that were going to kill everyone here.

Once again he didn't think, he simply reacted. Turning and darting back the way he'd come he tore towards the small group that made up his allies. Luo Hao was a bit further off to the side, but it looked like she'd realized the situation just as he had because she had seized her student by the back of his shirt and was also rushing to close with the rest of their allies.

The swords that had been created by his Warrior Authority lashed out at his mental command intercepting swords, clashing with them and knocking them off their paths. This wasn't what the golden blades were meant for, not what they'd been forged by his spell words for. They had been meant to cut through the divinity of Venus, not clash with these swords. They might have been fragments of a divine power, but when directed against something other than their intended target they were fragile weapons.

Not one of the golden swords he sent survived its meeting with the descending weapons, one and all they were shattered. However their destruction wasn't in vain because they were able to divert the falling weapons enough that they came down around the small group rather than directly on top of them.

There were no words to describe the sound as the rain of swords impacted. The vast eruption of explosions seemed intent upon drowning the world in the sounds of its roar. In the midst of it Godou continued to run forwards drawing upon his flagging Authority to create more swords even as the destruction of them ate at his refilled reserves of power. Idly he wondered if this was what it felt like to flee through a war zone, then he decided that he didn't want to know.

The downpour of weapons suddenly broke off and the seventh Campione found himself standing at the edge of a small clearing of undisturbed ground amidst an area that could only be described as a cratered war zone. The once partly alive earth was now reduced to nothing but wasteland, even the swords that had stood upright now lay on the ground like tumbled trees.

A sound echoed through the otherwise quiet landscape, and it took Godou a moment to recognize it for what it was.

Laughter.

At Shirou's side Venus was gazing at the strange world about her and laughing like some child that had seen some spectacular show. Her hands were clasped between her breasts and the smile upon her face was radiant. The whole effect made her a beacon of loveliness.

It was oddly discordant with the fact that the reason that she was so happy was because they were in such dire danger.

"Oh, oh this is most magnificent. Show me more King Shirou; show me more of this marvellous power."

In response to her demand Shirou spread out his arms, his hands out stretched as though pressed against an invisible wall.

And about him more swords appeared.

Not just a few, this time it was thousands, hundreds of thousands, it totally dwarfed the earlier barrage of swords that he'd sent against Luo Hao's giants. The seventh Campione mentally doubted that even the huge flood of blades that he'd used to destroy the Bloodstained Fields had contained as many weapons as now hovered around the King of Steel and the goddess that held him in her thrall.

"How can he do that?" Manaka's hushed voice came from behind him, "Earlier he wasn't able to materialize so many weapons."

"We're inside his Reality Marble," Illya hissed in reply, "In Unlimited Blade Works he doesn't need to Trace at all, every weapon he knows is already ready and waiting to be used, and he can summon them to him without cost. We're up against a limitless number of the finest weapons in existence"

"Unlimited Bl-"

Anything else that the Hime-Miko bodyguard had been about to say was cut off as Shirou's hands moved forwards in a gesture as though he was pushing something and the huge mass of swords and other weapons surged forwards.

Time seemed to slow down for the young Kusanagi as he watched the wall of death descend upon them. He couldn't think of anything he could do, his mind froze, trapped in an inescapable orbit around that one thought. He couldn't think of anything that could save him and all those with him. Oh he could survive those blades; his Ram Authority could revive him even if he did become a pin cushion so long as he activated it before he died. The problem was that that wouldn't help any of the others.

He didn't have any Authorities that he could use to shield them, nor did he have any that would destroy enough of the swords to save them, at least none that he could use.

How could he save them? How could he-

"Black King of the North that stands attended by the twisting serpent, shell that endures and protects, now grant me a shield to defend against the fall of the very stars themselves!"


-()-


As soon as she spoke the first words of her chant the grey and green shield of divine power formed into a dome that covered herself, King Shirou and all their allies. Deafening explosions seemed to blot out the world as the falling swords detonated against the protective Authority, but Luo Hao remained firm as she fed more of her Qi into maintaining the protection.

In all truth this hadn't been an Authority that she'd thought that she'd need to use during this battle, she'd been fully expecting to have subdued King Shirou long before its use became necessary, but it would seem that once more the second of the Kings of this land had managed to surprise her.

Off to her side she saw her sworn brother sag in place as the golden sword that he was holding fragmented into shards of golden light which in turn faded away. That meant that the Authority had been broken, not a pleasant experience and a costly one as far as one's reserves went. Still he must not allow that to lay him low.

"King Godou!" her voice cracked like a whip, a trick that she'd mastered over the course of nearly two centuries of training students.

"Huh?!" the effect of her single word was rather similar to him receiving an electric charge as he seemed to snap out of the daze he'd been in.

"Gather closer, all of you," she declared, "My Authority shall protect us all from King Shirou's onslaught, while this is so we must prepare our strategy for what we shall do next."

Her mind was already forming a few possibilities; the enthralled Campione's ability to rain down seemingly limitless swords upon them was a major hurdle, but not one that she couldn't overcome. The best option she could see was to use her wind Authority to create a tunnel between themselves and King Shirou. She would concentrate upon making the winds so strong that any sword that entered them would be blown off course, leaving her younger brother to use his speed Authority to close in on their foe and strike him with the Rule Breaker weapon. Perhaps not the greatest plan she'd ever come up with, but it did have the virtues of simplicity to commend it.

"We don't have time!" The white-haired sister of King Shirou shouted. "This shield won't hold against Shirou's next attack!"

She said it with such absolute certainty that it brought a frown to the Ruler of the Martial Realm's face. Yes, she was aware that this shield wasn't invincible, that black blade of dark light that the King of Steel had wielded at the start of this battle could have broken it. However she also knew that this Authority was strong, even if he did bring such a force to bear then it would take precious seconds for her shield to break, time that could be used to scatter and to counterattack.

So why . . . ?

The ground suddenly heaved beneath her almost throwing her from her feet, though she kept her balance and managed to maintain the shield. Was this an attempt to disrupt her so that the shield would fall and the rain of swords would impale them? If so then it would take more than that to break her stance.

Wait, something was wrong.

It suddenly struck her that the sound of explosions had cut off, the rain of swords had ceased. But if it wasn't continuing then why was the ground-

It erupted from the ground as though the earth itself had cast it forth. At first she thought that it was a wall, some change of the landscape to scatter and separate their group. That was a logical conclusion since the huge plane of rock that emerged was as wide as a house, but that was proven wrong as it continued to rise. For a moment she could do nothing but crane her head back in stupefied awe as she saw more and more of its length emerge from the earth.

It was only when the tip crashed into her shield that she realized what it was.

A sword.

But that was impossible! This . . . this thing was too huge to be a sword, it was of a size comparable to the huge sky scraping buildings that humanity had raised in the last few decades. It was huge in a way that dwarfed even the Norse giants that she'd faced in the past. And it was made from one single gigantic stone, as though some insane deity had thought to try to carve a mountain into a weapon.

Her shield held for an instant, but she could feel the force pressed against it. Other legendary weapons had special abilities such as fire or poison, but in a moment of clarity she realized that this impossible blade didn't need anything like that, its mere existence was miracle enough. What need had it for thunderbolts or ice, not when it possessed the simple raw power of the vast weight of its mere existence.

Her shield shattered. It was powerful, but a single blow from that impossible sword was on par with being struck by a falling star, it was the kind of blow that could cause maps to be rewritten. The sheer kinetic force of so many tonnes of legendary weapon moving was all that was needed to destroy just about anything. The titanic blade came to a stop, jutting out of the earth like some insane monument to war, then faded into golden motes so as to provide no shield from the next assault.

Once more swords began to rain down, but strangely they all seemed aimed to miss any direct hits, the sharp and experienced eyes of the Ruler of the Martial Realm could tell that at a glance. Well, that was hardly an issue, if they exploded on impact it wouldn't matter if they hit the target or not they'd still be slain. One such weapon came at her, but she easily avoided it as she diverted a portion of her Qi to defend against the coming explosion. She'd use its force to empower her own leap and-

There was no explosion.

Luo Hao had only a second to think about it as she saw other weapons coming down. Perhaps the one that had come at her had been a mistake, a defective? Well she had no time to think about that now, she needed to summon up her Authority and-

And she couldn't move, her body was frozen in place.

She could feel her magic resistance fighting against the influence that held her, could feel the power holding her break as she spun around. She had just enough time to see what it was that had held her, a simple sword with a dark blade thrust into her shadow. Its magic had only held her for a moment, but that moment had been long enough.

There was no time to do anything; all she could do was pull her Qi around her to strengthen her defences as the swords came down.


-()-


This . . . this was beyond anything that Venus had been expecting.

Standing at the side of her thrall she watched with a pounding heart as the eruptions of power caused by the rain of swords striking home obscured the small group of the Campione and their allies.

Turning she looked about her, looked at this strange yet beautiful world that Emiya Shirou had created. She didn't know what it was, nor did she know how it had come to be. She was certain that it hadn't been created in the same way that the Authorities of Gods created new Spaces, the sensation; the 'taste' of the power was completely different to anything that she'd ever experienced.

This was power, this was WAR! She could feel heat flush through her body as she pressed herself against the unmoving back of the King of Steel. Oh, what a true title that had been, she wondered if that fallen shrew Guinevere had realized just how appropriate it had been when she'd placed that name upon him.

Right now though that wasn't important to her. All that mattered to her was the molten passion racing through her veins as her fingers traced the hardened contours of her toy's muscles, stroking the wounds he'd taken

What did it matter to her if he had no passion for her, at this point in time she had more than enough passion for both of them? Perhaps she'd have him spread a blanket over the corpses of his fallen allies and have him take her upon it. The degeneracy of the act brought a smile to her lips as she opened her mouth to give the order.

Before she could though a groan of pain cut her off.

Frowning, her passion momentarily cooled by the apparent failure of her puppet to slay all his foes, she turned to peer at the place where the group of allies had been stuck down.

There they were, she could see their forms lying in the dirt, the colours of their clothing standing out against the dust and soil about them. Every one of them was down, their clothing scorched and trickles of blood leaking from their exposed skin, yet . . . they were all alive. HOW, how could that be? She'd felt the power of those swords, and in the past she'd known gods of war that had possessed weapons less powerful, there should be nothing left of them but scattered chunks of cooling meat and bone.

"What is this? How are they alive?"

There were more groans now; they were bitten off, as though their speaker was trying to bear the pain that caused them. One by one all of the figures were stirring, either pushing to their feet or at least levering themselves off the ground.

All of them, all of them were alive.

"HOW!?"

Her voice was no longer its formerly bell-like tone, outrage and anger had twisted it into a screech that none the less remained as beautiful as her body despite its cruel note.

"H . . . heh . . . heh heh hahahahhahaha!"

Laughter? One of these worms that dared to defy a god was laughing at her?!

Her eyes blazing with anger the Roman goddess glared at the small group, trying to spot which of them would have the temerity, the absolute gall, to laugh at a god. Was it one of the God Slayers? Was this their defiance? Or could it be one of the Great Knights that had chosen to serve the first King of this land?

No, to her surprise it was none of those, rather it was the youngest amongst them, the white haired sister of the King she held under her enchantment. What was she doing? Had she gone insane? The black haired giant that served her had been able to protect her from the majority of her harm, but even so the huge figure was broken and torn, wounded to the point where she doubted he'd even be able to stand.

No, that wasn't quite right. As she watched she saw the wounds upon the giant's form begin to steam and heal. The speed of the healing was impressive, but it would still take some time for the huge figure to be able to stand, much less fight, so that couldn't be the cause of her confidence.

So what was it? Venus's eyes narrowed in anger as she glared at the laughing child.

"How dare you laugh at me? How are you even alive?!"

The white haired girl was standing now, she was swaying on her feet, but the fallen bulk of her protector provided something large enough for her to lean on to steady herself. She had power, the goddess noted, quite an impressive level of power for a mere mortal, but it was hardly upon a level that could be of concern to her.

"Shirou . . . saved . . . us."

The words were panted out as the child drew deep breaths as though she'd just run a race. A thin stream of blood trickled from a cut on her chin and the clothing she wore looked battered and torn, but despite all that there was a gleam in her eyes that Venus couldn't quite place.

And that fed her anger, those words, that look, how dare this mortal, this nothing, direct either at her. Especially when the King of Steel was utterly under her domain.

"What do you mean? King Shirou belongs to me; I own every part of him, every thought, every deed!"

"Not all," there was a sort of smug defiance in the girl's voice now. "There's some part of Shirou that you haven't got, some part of him that's not yours. That's why the Noble Phantasms missed us, that's why their detonation didn't destroy us. That's why the swords didn't kill Godou when they first came down."

Venus's head whipped around to glare at the silent King at her side. Was that true, had he rally avoided harming them deliberately?

No, no that couldn't be true. She could feel the power of the Heart Thief pulsing within him. Love for her filled him utterly; she loved him more than life, more than self, more than anything. He was her. Utterly and completely, he was just hers.

"It's so sweet that you hold such faith in your brother," she said, her voice dripping honeyed venom, "But that's just your delusion. Shirou loves me now, he loves me more than you, more than your parents, more than his life, more than his very self. My Authority guarantees it."

She'd been hoping to hurt the girl, to cause her pain, to see her face crumble into despair. Instead the insolent girl smiled at her. She dared to smile! Within Venus the decision was made that this impudent child would need to learn humility through suffering, the only question was how it would be accomplished. Perhaps she'd make the girl fall in love with her brother and then force the child to watch as her brother made love to her? It had a certain brutal simplicity that appealed to her.

"Do you know what this is, this place we stand in?"

The question broke her out of her vicious thoughts and brought her attention back to the snow haired girl. The others had grown quiet now, all of them paying attention to what she was saying. Almost certainly they were all playing for time, trying to gain that little bit more to let them recover. Well, she'd let them have it, this power that her toy had shown was beyond what they could recover to stand against, of that she was sure.

"This is a Reality Marble, this is Shirou's internal world materialized and projected over the normal world. This is his soul given form and power. And it's because of that that I know you don't have all of him."

The certainty in her voice was . . . maddening. How dare she imply that there was some part of the King that she hadn't taken? She was Venus, she had his heart even though she'd been forced to take everything else and reduce him to a passionless puppet.

"Oh? Perhaps I'll have him carve your eyes out since you don't seem to be using them. What is there in this world that tells you that there's something of my King that isn't mine?"

The smile on the girl's face was strange, a combination of vicious glee and a deep . . . sadness? What? That made no sense, why . . . ? Whatever the case her arm rose up and her finger pointed at the sole hill in this plain of swords.

"It's right there, right at the centre of his world!"

A frown on her face the Roman goddess of love and beauty turned to stare up at the hill. What did she mean? There was nothing upon that tree save for grass and the endless weapons that stood out everywhere upon this land, just what did that have to do with-

The hill was a good distance off, far enough that mortal eyes would have been hard pressed to make out any details upon it; however the eyes of a goddess were far sharper. She could sit upon Olympus and gaze at the action of a King even if he was in his palace in Crete. As such she could see what was on that hill, amidst the swords and other weapons that stood there like eternal sentries. She could see what it was that King Shirou's sister had also spotted.

What she saw wasn't emphasised or overt; it simply stood amongst the weapons as though it had every right to be there. It was almost overshadowed by the huge axe on one side of its form and a series of great swords stabbed into the ground on the other side, yet despite that it stood at the tallest point of the hill, at the centre of this world.

It was a statue, one carved of white marble and utterly pristine as though it had just that minute been brought out of the crafter's workshop. It was no great work of huge proportions or extravagant decoration. It was a modest statue, true to size and finely carved, yet elegant in the simplicity of its depiction without even a plinth upon which it was placed. The statue was of a girl, one in the later days of her youth and ready to cease to be a girl and become a woman. Her hands were clasped below her waist and the statue captured her as her head was ever so slightly tilted to the side her face carved in a gentle smile. Her clothes were a simple dress, blouse and thin cardigan combination that had been exquisitely captured.

She was beautiful, Venus grudgingly acknowledged that, but her beauty was a mortal beauty, an ordinary beauty. It was that which could be found in one' neighbour, or in one's colleagues. It was not the epic beauty of Helen of Troy or Atlanta or even Penelope of Ithaca, yet here she was almost unnoticeable amidst the weapons yet she stood at the centre of this world.

And Venus recognized her, she was the purple haired girl with the beautiful smile and the sad eyes whose love the red haired God Slayer had held onto to the very last. She was the girl that had denied her King Shirou as a true lover and had instead forced her to reduce him to this . . . this enthralled automaton. And here she was again, taunting her, defying her!

"It doesn't matter what you've done to Shirou," the white haired childs voice broke into her thoughts, "You can steal or force all the love you want upon him, but here, at the centre of his world, that's where Sakura is, not you, never you!"

Oh, Venus recognized that tone now. It wasn't the voice of one spitting defiance, it was the voice of one that knew they were going to die and was twisting what knives they could so as to hurt their slayer as much as possible before the final blow was struck.

Venus was not a goddess that normally associated with violence; she'd left that behind with the name of Ishtar. While she could bring disaster and ruin it was through subtle means, through manipulation and misdirection. However despite that she was still a goddess. She might possess no natural powers for battle; she might have the majority of the power she did possess tied up in keeping King Shirou under her thrall, but that didn't matter. Anger lent her the strength she needed and with a single savage gesture she sent a lightning bolt shooting at the impertinent little girl. It was a weak and feeble thing when compared to the mighty blasts that Zeus had been famed for, but it was more than enough to incinerate some presumptuous little mortal.

Except that at the last minute the ruined and torn arm of her servant rose to intercept the bolt. Half the black giant's arm was taken off by the attack, but despite that the limb remained rock solid in the defence of the white haired girl.

For the Heretic Goddess it was the last straw, her anger boiled over as she glared at the child that dared to defy her so.

"Perhaps you're right." She whispered, her voice carrying across the plain of swords despite its low volume, "Perhaps there is some part of my pet King that has escaped me."

Her face creased into a mask of beautiful cruelty, the face that had been loved and feared throughout Greece and Rome.

"But I can do something about that," she stepped once more to stand by the enchanted Campione, one arm extended to lightly touch his shoulder with her palm. "First I'll have him kill you all, then I'll go and find this 'Sakura'. Perhaps once she's dead King Shirou will have a gap in his heart that will need to be filled."

Her eyes had been fixed upon her thrall's sister, hoping to see some trace of despair or defeat there. But to her annoyance the child simply glared defiance back at her. Ah well, sometimes one couldn't have all they wanted. The two God Slayers did look as though they'd regained some of their strength though, perhaps she should end these discussions and simply order her thrall t-

THNNK!

The sound and impact caught Venus completely by surprise. Sent stumbling back a few feet she looked down stupidly at her chest unable to grasp what she was seeing.

There, just slightly to the left of the valley of her breasts, was a sword hilt. What was it doing there, it didn't go with the garments that she wore at all, though the crimson stain that was spreading around it did have a certain vivid beauty all of its own.

Wait, a sword hilt? A red stain? She'd been stabbed, but . . . how?

Somehow staying on her feet the Roman goddess looked up to see the one that had thrust the sword into her heart.

King Shirou stood, his arm extended in the act of driving the weapon into her and his whole body frozen in place. His face was contorted into an expression that went beyond anguish and into the realms of madness. Yet despite his obvious pain his eyes never left her face.

"But . . . you love me."

The statement slipped from Venus's lips almost plaintively. How could this be? She had taken all his love, every scrap of it, how then could he turn on her? She was his sun, his moon, the very light of his existence; she filled him up until she blotted everything else out. So how . . . how could this be?

"With all my heart."

She blinked, that had been the first time he'd spoken to her since she'd placed him under the full power of the Heart Thief. Even her direct orders hadn't been able to induce him to speak; he'd simply stared at her as though unable to comprehend what she'd asked. In the end she'd simply written it off as a side effect of the level of effect he was under, he'd been able to understand and follow her instructions so that had been enough for her. She'd forgotten what a pleasant voice he had. Why had that slipped her mind?

"But I chose her over everything . . . even my own heart."

Oh.

Oh, how could she have forgotten? She was the goddess of love, how could she have forgotten how powerful love could be. Or was this love? He'd chosen her even over his own heart? What was that, what-

Her vision was getting blurry now, but for some reason she couldn't take her eyes away from the figure before her. This was the King that she'd captured, claimed and dyed in her colours. Except . . . those weren't her colours anymore now were they? The purple tunic she'd garbed him in was stained black with soot, dirt and blood while the torn remnants of the white robe-like shirt was now practically red with the blood it had soaked up. Even the trousers he wore were now more black than the dark blue he'd once worn.

For some reason that image stuck in her head, even as the strength left her legs and she collapsed to the ground, the sight of the King of Steel clad in black and red. For some reason she thought that seemed oddly appropriate.

As the darkness rose to claim her the goddess of love and beauty found two thoughts running through her mind. The first was to wonder just what Authority King Shirou would gain from her death. It was an idly curious thought that nagged at her but was largely unimportant. The other thought was a kind of lethargic envy.

Why, why couldn't she have his love? Why? Why? Wh . . .


-()-


Guinevere knew that she should feel elation at the sight of Sir Shirou slaying his enslaver in such a manner. It had a pleasing poetic irony to it that under normal circumstances would have appealed to her, especially when it was applied to that harlot of a goddess.

However even as she stood carefully concealed behind the veil of spells she'd so carefully woven, so she could observe what was happening from a closer view, she felt only a mild satisfaction. The joy, the vicious pleasure of watching one that she despised being laid low eluded her as one fact that she'd just learnt seemed to occupy all her thoughts.

Sir Shirou had a lover.

Sir Shirou had a lover whom he was so utterly devoted to that even the Authority of a goddess of love had not been able to break that love. Was she really that beautiful? Could it be that they had some grand romance, him saving her from some great evil that was about to slay her? If so then where was she? Had she abandoned him, run off and broken his heart? Or was she waiting for him somewhere, kept away from the young God Slayer by some duty or other?

"That sword," the murmured voice of her protector brought her out of her spinning thoughts, "Why do I feel a connection to that blade."

Using a spell to once more sharpen her vision the Witch Queen beheld the form of Venus as she crumbled into golden sand which in turn faded away leaving only the sword that had taken her life. A sword that she recognized, indeed it was burned into he memory.

"That is the blade that Sir Shirou called Arondight, Sir Knight." She informed him somewhat absently. "It's the blade he used to save Guinevere."

The words were spoken without much thought, since the majority of her attention was now upon the young man whom she'd titled as the King of Steel. He'd collapsed to the ground, his body flopping limply like a puppet that had been bereft of its strings, the world he had miraculously created fragmenting and returning to the mundane plane of the torn up landscape that the park had become.

But she'd seen his face, and that glance was all she needed.

Maybe the emotions that Venus had forced upon him had been false, but they had none the less been real enough to him that they were causing pain. His sister was already drawing near to him, obviously ready to offer comfort, so at least he wouldn't be alone. Still . . .

Something about the situation left her feeling dissatisfied. She'd been hoping that she'd be the one that would save Sir Shirou. She'd been hoping to be the one that he'd look at with gratitude so that she could look away shyly even as she revelled in his attention and appreciation. Maybe he'd even go so far as to-

Her increasingly romantic fantasy was cut off as she felt a sudden surge of power ripple over her.

What?! She felt one . . . two . . . three powerful auras drawing close. One of them was a Divine Ancestor like her and a powerful one as well. Another signature was definitely that of a god, but for some reason it felt muted, weakened, as though it were incomplete. The third one though, that was something else altogether.

The power that radiated from that third aura was immense, huge on a scale that she'd only ever seen embodied in such deities as Artus or, loath though she was to admit it, Mordred.

A thought struck her and sent a chill down her spine. Here were nearly half of the God Slayers in the world and all of them were battered and weakened, low hanging fruit just waiting to be plucked and devoured. Had someone else seen Venus's cruel game and thought to take advantage of it?

If that was the case then what could she do? With Sir Knight to aid her and the Holy Grail to lend her strength she had options available to her, but which should she take? Should she save King Shirou alone? Should she try to save his sister and servants as well? And what of the other Kings, should she abandon them to their fates? Neither of them were her enemies, indeed Luo Hao had been something of an erstwhile ally during the business with the Monkey King.

What should she do?


-()-


She gloried in the power that flowed through her, the way that her flesh had grown, how her limbs had stretched, how her features had matured. For the first time in more than a thousand years she was no longer a child, she was now her true beautifully terrifying self.

She was now an immortal witch no longer, now she was a goddess once more.

"This is an ideal opportunity," the words of Brynhildr broke into her thoughts. "They all lie exhausted from their battles. Crush them now and then let us be on our way to capture the Devil King that lives in that lands that were once Rome's, their deaths will be a suitable trumpet call to sound your return."

"Kusanagi Godou is my prey, you shall not touch him."

It was strange how the wheedling and honeyed tones of her ally contrasted so with the oddly emotionless voice of Athena. Both were here with her within the space that her power had created so she could travel to the battlefield where the God Slayers were vulnerable. No spell was needed to make it, for the first time in centuries she hadn't needed to invoke incantations or use artefacts to perform the powerful act. She had needed only her own power and will, that had been all.

But both of them did raise valid points, what should she do?

There was the fact that being able to slay so many of the Campione in the world would be too fine an opportunity to simply cast aside. Perhaps honoured Athena would be unhappy to lose her quarry, but once they saw to the return of her full power she was sure that any lingering resentment would be dispelled.

She could feel them drawing closer to their destination, closer to the place where she would announce her return to the world.

And adorning that return with the blood of her natural enemies seemed like an increasingly appealing idea.


-\-/-\-/-\-/-


Byōki Tsuikyū no Koganenokugi: Golden Nails of Ill Pursuit

Type – Anti-Unit Rank – C Range – 1 No of Targets – 1-3

This is one of the Noble Phantasms belonging to the Heroic Spirit Ishikawa Goemon, a famed heroic ninja thief.

In effect this Noble Phantasm can be regarded as an anti-movement weapon since rather than dealing any sort of serious damage it instead eliminates the movements of the victim and greatly reduces their Agility rank until such time as the damage dealt by the Noble Phantasm is healed.

Byōki Tsuikyū no Koganenokugi can be used in one of two ways, the first is against a pursuing opponent. If the user is being followed by a hostile force and this Noble Phantasm is deployed then not only will it act to slow the pursuers, but it will also grant its user a temporary rank up to Luck in relation to escaping those chasing them.

If it is instead deployed to foul the movement of a high speed target then another effect will come into play. Simply put the higher an opponent's Agility then the more likely they are to fall prey to the effects of this Noble Phantasm.

In both cases targets that are hit by the Byōki Tsuikyū no Koganenokugi suffer a number of effects. Firstly will be an immediate loss of footing leading to a collapse of proportionate severity to the speed at which they are travelling. More severely though they will receive wounds to their feet, these wounds will be minor, especially to a Servant, however the pain engendered by them will be disproportionate to their severity to the point where unless the victim has a skill that allows them to shut out interfering influences, such as Bravery, they will suffer a temporary immobilization and a Rank down to Agility for the next ten minutes.

The pain that these wounds inflict is linked to the wound itself, therefore if the wound is healed through magic or a Noble Phantasm the pain will disappear. It should be noted that this Noble Phantasm can bypass such defences as Magic Resistance since they provide no protection against the curse-like effects of Byōki Tsuikyū no Koganenokugi.

This Noble Phantasm would be of higher rank, however it suffers from a limitation, that being that it can only be used on a target once at full effectiveness, if used again then the effect will be halved each time until it is utterly ineffective.


-\-


Giant Slayer: Legacy of David's Stone

Type – Anti-Unit Rank – D - A+ Range – 3-50 No of Targets – 1

This Noble Phantasm has been owned by many heroes through the ages and has faced foes in Indian, Norse, Greek and Hindu cultures.

This arrow has an intricately carved stone head that was made using the same stone that David used to defeat Goliath in the Book of Samuel. Having gained certain divine traits due to its involvement in the momentous event the resulting arrow was passed from hand to hand through the subsequent ages and gained status and reputation as it played a pivotal role in a number of adventures. In time its origin in Hebrew lore was lost and it came to be known simply as a powerful arrow.

This Noble Phantasm can be regarded as an Anti-Giant weapon since unless certain conditions are met it will possess only a mediocre power. The first condition is that the target must be humanoid, should it be used against such an enemy as a dragon or a serpent then its ability will not initiate. The second condition is that the target must be at least twice the size of a human being. The last condition is that this arrow may only be used once a day, after it has been used then it will return to its owner but should it be used again its effect will not activate.

When used against a target the Rank and power output of this Noble Phantasm are dependant upon the size of the target. Should the target be only two metres tall then the original Rank will not change and the attack will be of D rank. However should the target be four metres tall then the Rank and attack power will be C+ level. This increase in scale will continue until any target taller than eight metres will be subject to an A+ rank attack that will verge on being of anti-fortress level.

Due to its origins this Noble Phantasm also possesses the traits of a holy object meaning that it is protected by the belief of the faithful, a quality similar to Magic Resistance which allows this weapon to penetrate 'pagan' protections such as the favours or blood of divine spirits or gods. This means that any defences used to stop this arrow, such as God Hand, will suffer a rank down in effectiveness.

It should be noted that Shirou can get around the limit of using the Giant Slayer only once a day by Tracing a new copy which will be ready for use. It should also be noted that this Noble Phantasm is one of the few that cannot be effectively Broken to increases its power, as doing so actually reduces its power for the instant before it is destroyed.


-\-


Mountain Felling Sword: the Weapon Beyond Humanity

Type – Anti-Army/Anti-Fortress Rank – A++ Range – 100 No of Targets – 100-1000

The Mountain Felling Sword is a mysterious creation without a known origin. It exists within Gilgamesh's vault of treasures but has never possessed a known wielder, but judging from its dimensions it may well have been intended to be used by a god.

As a Noble Phantasm this sword is actually almost entirely useless since it is impossible for any human sized Heroic Spirit to wield it, such Servants as Gilgamesh or Archer could have used their own abilities to use it as a projectile, but refrained from doing so. In the case of Gilgamesh this was due to pride since he regarded the sword as more of a trophy than a weapon while in Archer's case he lacked the Prana reserves to Trace such a huge weapon outside Unlimited Blade Works.

As a Noble Phantasm the Mountain Felling Sword is rather lacking in powers, it possesses no special attacks or abilities beyond it being able to hold itself together in the face of mundane physics which state it should crumble under its own weight. In terms of durability the Noble Phantasm can hold up against even powerful Anti-Fortress attacks, though an attack on the level of Excalibur might be sufficient to break it. This enhanced durability does make it ideal for the destruction of large fixed targets such as fortresses or heavily armoured foes.

The reason for the high rank of this weapon is that when it is employed, through whatever means, the sheer vast weight of the huge sword ensures that any attack it makes will have enormous amounts of kinetic energy behind them, enough that the name of this Noble Phantasm is not inaccurate. If this weapon is swung or launched in such a manner that it is similar to it being wielded by a proportionately sized wielder with even D rank Strength then the resulting attack would be able to instantly slay any target with an Endurance rank equal to or less then A+.

It should be noted that if Shirou were to Trace this weapon then use Titan Knight at its maximum size of 50 metres he'd still be like a child wielding their father's sword, but he would possess the necessary size and strength to employ it to a semi-effective level.


\/\/\/\/\/\/\/


Luo Hao's Newly Revealed Authority.

Shield of the Tortoise Shell – Black King of the North that stands attended by the twisting serpent, shell that endures and protects, now grant me a shield to defend against the fall of the very stars themselves!

This Authority was one of the earlier ones that Luo Hao gained in her rise as a Campione and was usurped from the Chinese god Xuan Wu in his incarnation as the Black Tortoise Zhi Ming.

When used this Authority manifests itself in one of a number of forms depending upon the desires of its user. Its principle form is as a large semi-transparent dome of grey/green energy with a turtle shell pattern picked out upon it in black lines. In this form the Shield can protect anything from a small group to an entire city, expanding and contracting as needs be. The shield created is extremely powerful, sufficiently so that virtually no mundane force short of Nuclear weapons can hope to affect it. In the past Luo Hao has used it to defend against thunderbolts, fireballs and all manner of divine attacks. It is possible for an enemy Authority to break through it, but such an attack would have to be on par or superior to Godou's Stallion Authority.

In its secondary form the field condenses down to the form of a round hand held shield about three feet in diameter. In this state the shields defensive abilities are nearly doubled and the shield gains the ability to draw attacks to itself so that they won't impact on others. However using the shield in this way is very draining to the reserves of the user.

It should also be noted that due to Xuan Wu's strong ties to snakes the shield provided by this Authority is extra effective against deities with their own connection to serpents but doesn't possess any weakness against Authorities of Steel.

There are some disadvantages to the use of this Authority though. The main one is that while it is engaged the user cannot move from the spot where they are standing meaning that they are forced to act as a fortress rather than a combatant. Another disadvantage is that while this Authority is in use no others can be activated. Authorities that were already engaged will continue, so summoned servants will remain, but will be cut off from new commands. For example if Luo Cuilian had created a whirlwind with her Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl and then raise a Shield then the tornado would go out of her control until she stopped using Shield of the Tortoise Shell and re-established her hold on it.

It should also be noted that she prefers not to use this Authority as a point of pride. While it served her well during her early years Luo Hao now feels that she has grown strong and skilled enough that the use of a shield is unnecessary. Generally she only uses it when having to protect others and uses her more favoured Authorities to defend herself.


-\-\-\-


Omake: A Better Berserker

Kariya Matou was a man of enormous determination. He had to be, had he not been then he'd have ended up the puppet of his monster of a father and would probably have ended up dragging his childhood friend, and the love of his life, into a hell that Satan himself would have looked on with approval.

Making the decision to give up one's life was hard. To give up one's life in a drawn out and torturous manner, such as being consumed from the inside out by crest Worms, was even harder, but it was a choice that he'd made.

Sakura.

He had to save Sakura.

Now here he was. His body was a ruin that probably wouldn't last another year, his hair had turned white from his suffering and his nerves were so damaged that the left side of his body was becoming difficult to use. But that wasn't important, what was of import was that the worms within his flesh let him generate the Prana he needed to support a Servant. And a Servant was what he needed if he wanted to get the Holy Grail and ensure that Sakura could be freed from her torment.

Before him the summoning circle glowed as power ran through it. He'd spoken the words and knew that soon the Servant would appear. Gritting his teeth he braced himself for more of the pain that he was sure would soon be coming. In the end he'd taken his father's advice and used the added lines to ensure that the Servant he gained would be of the Berserker class.

He could understand the logic behind the notion; after all he had no formal training in Magecraft and even with the Crest Worms the amounts of Prana he could supply was limited. Using the Madness Enhancement to compensate for his own shortcomings was the logical thing to do. The only problem was that he was well aware from his own research that the Berserker class was both the hardest to control and the hardest to maintain of the classes. Well, with any luck he'd be able to hold together long enough to use that power to win the war.

With blood running down from his right eye and the left side of his face throbbing as the worms within him wriggled Kariya looked up at the Servant that he'd summoned.

He was . . . a blonde beach bum?

Granted the jeans, unbuttoned shirt, shoes and sunglasses he was wearing all seemed to be of high quality, as was the long tube like carrier he had slung over one shoulder. The problem was that all of that just made him look like a better class of beach bum, say one that had inherited a considerable amount of money and was planning to spend the rest of their days absorbed in the simple pleasures of fishing, swimming and surfing.

Was this his legendary Servant? Was this the instrument of Sakura's salvation?

"Eeeehh?" the questioning remark was drawn out as the young man took a slow glance around his surroundings. "Ah, so this is the place Shirou-kun mentioned . . . pretty dingy if you ask me, still there should be some fun opponents about here somewhere."

His gaze passed over Kariya and Zouken with the kind of casual disregard that a runner might have for a pair of ants in his path. He might have noted that they existed, but even so he dismissed their presences as absolutely inconsequential. Then the gaze paused and reversed itself as he focused on the white haired Mage.

"Ah, so you're the one that's my partner in this contest. Well, come on. If we hurry we can find a fight before sun up, well, that or a good spot to go fishing."

Kariya just gaped at the blond man as he casually stepped forwards and started to amble towards the stairs out of the underground workshop as though he were leaving a department store.

"Heh heh heh heh." The dry chuckle of Zouken echoed through the workshop like the rustling of some ancient tomb. "Is this the best that you're capable of? Some no-name American that would just as much go fishing as battle in the War? Perhaps I should have had Sakura perform the Summoning; at least she might have called up someone that can be taken seriously."

Even as Kariya felt shame, anger and despair well up within him the ambling figure paused in his tracks, then turned slowly to regard Zouken with an air of mild curiosity.

"Oh, and what are you looking at boy?"

The old magus felt secure in his taunting of this . . . this false Servant. Quite clearly his disappointment of a son had managed to completely fail in his summoning given the lack of any sort of aura of power around the man. Even if he did possess some measure of threat the destruction of his current form was one that Zouken could easily survive if it came to it.

He had-

SSSHHNNICCCK!

There was a metallic sliding sound and suddenly Zouken was falling to the ground in two separate pieces as he split perfectly down the middle. Worms wriggled as they found themselves suddenly exposed to air and tried to burrow back into the stolen flesh that supported them. Standing over them the blond Servant stood his right arm now seemingly made of living silver and clasping a beautiful but functional sword. He looked down at the bisected corpse with a slight frown on his face.

"I don't like you." He said simply.

Then the sword came down again.

-()-

Lord Salvatori Doni was perfectly well aware that he wasn't the brightest fellow in the world. He didn't particularly mind though, him and deep thinking didn't go very well together anyway. He was a guy that went with his instincts and that had worked for him so far, it had even ended up making him a Campione after he mastered the art of fighting without thought.

All this boiled down to the simple fact that when Doni thought something was a good idea he generally just went ahead and did it without any kind of regard for consequences. As soon as that bald old guy had opened his mouth the sixth Campione had decided that he was unquestionably a bad guy and therefore someone to cut down.

So he'd done just that without thinking twice.

Now though he was looking down at the remains of the corpse and getting the distinct impression that something wasn't right. He had definitely cut it a few times, more than enough to kill a normal human, yet his instincts, his guts, were telling him that he hadn't cut what he wanted to cut.

And that annoyed him.

Channelling more power to his arm he murmured the incantation that drew out its full power.

"I hereby swear, I forbid the existence of things I cannot cut!"

The power of a god flowed through him and the blade that he held shone with a silver light. In one single movement he brought the sword down in a final slash at the corpse before him.

The Ripping Arm of Silver was an Authority that, among other things, allowed Doni to cut just about anything he wanted. People, gods, castles, monsters, even spells and barriers, all could be cut by his blade.

And right now he really wanted to cut Zouken.

Every Crest Worm in the workshop that was connected to the old Magus gave a shrill squeal as enough magical power to allow the Campione to cut through a fortress was driven directly into his soul. Doni had no idea what he was doing. He didn't know that he was technically performing the impossible by physically attacking a soul; he didn't know the ridiculous amount of power he was using to do it. All he knew was that there was something he wanted to cut and that he was damned well going to cut it.

Never underestimate an unreasonable idiot with the power of a god.

Matou Zouken died in fear and confusion, utterly unable to comprehend what was happening.

-()-

Kariya was sitting on the cold stone floor of the workshop. This wasn't entirely his choice of course; his legs had given out on him due to a combination of disbelief and the worms that had replaced a good portion of his nerves acting up. Right now though he wasn't really thinking about that, the entirety of his mind was stuck on the notion that he could no longer feel Zouken's presence in the worms that were a part of his body.

The Crest Worms that had granted him the ability to generate the Prana he needed hadn't been a 'part' of his father the way that almost all the others had. However even so there had been some connection, enough that the twisted old man had been able to monitor his son's progress as he saw fit, enough that he could cause the worms to grow agitated if he wanted to 'discipline' his son. Now though, there was no connection. He couldn't feel that constant niggling at the edge of his senses that had been the constant pressure of the old man looking over his shoulder.

Was Zouken . . . dead?

It seemed impossible, an idea that simply wouldn't fit into his head. Oh, he hated the monstrous old man, but even so there was some part of him that had feared that his father was truly immortal, that there was no way he'd ever be free of him.

"Ahh, that's better. All taken care of."

The cheerful voice of his Servant broke into his thoughts as he sheathed his sword back into the odd shoulder sheath that he carried. His face was one of easy going friendliness, definitely not the face of one that had just achieved the seemingly impossible.

"Who . . . who are you?"

"Oh, that's right. I haven't introduced myself have I?" The Servant sounded vaguely embarrassed at his lack of manners and was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm Servant Berserker, and I guess you're my Master, right?"

This was Servant Berserker? He certainly didn't look like the mad warrior that Kariya had envisioned. Still on the other hand he wasn't going to complain, especially not when the Servant had finished off the bane of his life.

That made the crippled young man pause for a moment. Zouken was dead . . . that meant that Sakura was free didn't it? Nobody was going to be throwing her into the pit of worms now, indeed by the look of things it didn't look like there'd be that many of the things left before long, not if the way they were lying about and only slightly twitching was anything to go by.

So . . . now what? He'd sacrificed his future for this, for Sakura, and given that the old bastard was now dead he considered that a well paid bargain. Before he had just Zouken's dubious word that he'd let the girl go if Kariya brought him the Holy Grail, a thin reed upon which to place it all. Now though, he was dead, gone, no longer a factor. Sakura's future was assured!

Or . . . was it? With Zouken dead that just left Byakuya as the next head of the house once Kariya surcame to the damage of the worms still in him. Would Sakura be alright if she was left in the hands of his alcoholic brother?

Even as his thoughts whirled the blond Servant ambled up to him, a friendly smile on his face. And extended a hand.

"Well, come on. There're rivals to find and fights to have." A look of innocent intrigue crossed his face, "Shirou-kun always said that the Servants were strong, fighting them should be lots of fun."

Without consciously thinking about it Kariya reached out and took the offered hand. Maybe this hadn't been what he'd planned on, but he wasn't going to argue with the results. This Berserker had already fulfilled his greatest desire and he seemed strong despite his odd appearance. Maybe together they could beat Tohsaka, hell; they might be able to win the War.

That thought gave him slight pause, even as he heaved himself to his feet. If they could win the Grail then he could use it to regain his full health. Berserker could have his own wish and Kariya would be able to act as the father that Sakura deserved.

Yes . . . that was a plan that could work, Berserker certainly seemed eager enough to fight, even if he was much saner than his class seemed to suggest.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Salvatore Doni, and who are you?"

"Matou Kariya."

"Well then, let's go see what we can find."

As the two made their way out of the workshop Kariya couldn't help but feel something that had been draining away from him this whole past year.

Hope.