The combat had begun with a bang.
Sakura made the first move, sending her tendrils at the three standing from both sides at once. They all jumped, with Rin and Kota moving to the left and right of the room, while Saber held onto Shirou.
Rin and Kota began shooting at Zouken and Sakura, although, the latter was targeted with slight hesitation.
Zouken just chuckled as he split around the shots, while Sakura giggled, moving the tendrils to block them.
From there Sakura just attacked Rin and Kota with her tendrils, while Zouken slowly walked towards Shirou and Saber. Rin and Kota fired at Sakura, trying to beat her back without majorly injuring her, but Saber was hesitant at attacking Zouken and leaving Shirou. Before the indecision could screw her over, Shirou painfully bent upward and rasped,
"Target him... If you kill him... then Sakura will... go back to normal..."
Blinking, Saber looked at Shirou with concern, before nodding and moving to confront Zouken.
"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of protecting Emiya, you're coming right at me?"
"I cannot defeat you and free the girl without getting closer."
"Ha! Then come as close as you like!"
With that, the two rushed at each other, Zouken raising his claw for a thrust and Saber raising her blade to parry. With a clash they collided.
Saber had diverted Zouken's claw to the side, before making a sideways slash, trying to bisect him. The blade connected, but just flowed through him as he separated and reformed around it.
While Saber stared in slight shock, having seen him reform around the Oracle shots earlier but not expecting it. Zouken then reformed his other arm into a claw, and struck at Saber.
Catching the attack just in time, Saber spun out of the range of the attack, before following up with a volley of strikes. Downward slash, diagonally upward to the right, another slash to the left, more and more, faster and faster. But all he did was morph around it. Feeling slight frustration from the pointlessness of her actions, and a bit upset at Shirou's state, Saber pushed some of her Oracle energy into Excalibur, causing it to flare up as it connected.
This time, even though it still slipped through him, it went through roughly, and Zouken grimaced with pain, before flying a ways back. Putting his hand to his chest where he was struck, he muttered to himself,
"So, it seems strong enough Bias Factors can interrupt my own Oracle Cells. That's what the research suggested, but it's nice to know. I really need to find that perfect specimen." He then looked to Shirou, who appeared to know someone that could fit the criteria, before looking to Saber.
"By this point, she's likely already figured out that her Oracle attacks can injure me." Cracking his neck, he then continued, "Looks like I'll need to approach this with more caution."
Stepping forward, he then turned his claws and wings back to their normal state, before forcing his fingers into his chest and letting out a choked gasp.
His body started to deform, before settling into a larger shape. Longer than Shinji's own corpse, which was large in its own right, and in three segments, similar to an ant. It had two large claws coming out of its abdomen, and four smaller claws coming out of where the thorax would be. And from the back of his abdomen appeared two large insect wings. However, at the same time...
"Ahhh!!!"
Sakura had fallen onto her knees, clutching her hands to her chest. She was shaking from pain, an expression of anguish on her face, before she began to vomit blood. Kota and Rin watched on in concern and morbid fascination, until the tendrils that had gone limp from her pain began to cocoon around her, forming a bud of black tendrils. With another cry, more tendrils burst out of the bottom of the bud, before flailing around wildly, destroying the ground around it and carving out some of the roof, which miraculously held.
All Rin and Kota could do was dodge and watch Saber, who had then begun combat with the old man-turned-bug monster.
Zouken began to wildly swing his arms, attempting to bisect Saber. Saber began to dodge over and under each strike, and when they both came at the same time, she used Excalibur as a fulcrum, blocking both blades while pulling herself above them.
When both claws were blocked, Saber brought herself down on the upper claw, and jumped upward, pulling her sword out of the stone floor. Being high enough, she then charged Excalibur with Oracle, and swung downward at Zouken's now bug-like head, complete with mandibles and refractory eyes.
Though it is physically impossible, Saber would swear that Zouken's bug-eyes widened, before he started to deform his head. It was, however, slower than usual. As such, Saber was able to get decent traction, and begun to pierce his hard chitin shell, getting an inch deep, before her blade began to sink through him, her Oracle causing a slight sizzling sound as it went through Zouken's reforming body.
While Zouken was stunned, both from the pain of being cut and being eaten from the inside, like an immune system consuming a bacteria, Saber moved forward. Reaching Zouken's legs, Saber took a chance on Zouken's stunned state and swung at the joint between hisfront right leg's chitinous armour.
While the blade did pierce, it only produced a shallow cut. With a breath, Saber charged up her next strike, before releasing it into the same leg. The blow was capable of lightly cutting the chitin, but cutting to nearly halfway through the leg, causing Zouken to stumble slightly.
But it was at that point that Zouken was no longer stunned from the pain, now used to it and capable of ignoring the pain coming from his leg. Taking flight, he left Saber's immediate range, before reforming just his abdomen to have more chitinous armour and dropping, aiming to crush Saber.
Seeing it coming, Saber jumped right at Zouken, pumping Oracle into Excalibur to prepare for their collision. But before they could collide...
"Saber! Look out!"
Saber was struck from behind by one of the rampaging black tendrils, making her lose her concentration and causing the Oracle energy she was building to run rampant and release. It resulted in a golden explosion that barely touched Zouken, but shot Saber downwards, well within Sakura's range.
With great concern, Rin and Kota ran to grab Saber, who had dropped Excalibur somewhere between Shirou and Zouken.
"Hey, Saber! Hey!"
Shaking her, Kota and Rin looked down in fear for her safety, before looking to see that Sakura's cocoon had gone still, and Zouken, who had landed, was silently stalking towards them, before cackling.
"Hahahahahahahaha! To think, I worried so much against a little girl and her friends. Now I'll finish you off and continue my talk with Emiya."
Raising a massive claw, and preparing to rip them apart like an executioner and their scythe, Rin and Kota raised their God Arcs, ready to defend, but not having high hopes in their chances. But as his claw lowered towards them...
"Rho... Aias..."
A pink, seven-petalled flower appeared in front of them, blocking and even deflecting Zouken's claw. Behind the shield, holding his hands upward as if he were carrying the entire shield, was Shirou. Still covered in wounds, he stood upright, as if nothing could bring him down.
Deactivating Rho Aias, Shirou tossed a worried look over his shoulder at Saber, before giving them all a smile and telling them to stay safe. Taking a step forward, he entered a combat stance.
Zouken, no longer reeling from being deflected, brought down his other claw on Shirou. But Shirou merely raised his arms, keeping the two God Arcs locked at the hilt to catch his claw.
Landing the blow, Zouken's claw was caught by Shirou, but almost crushed him. Feeling his knees almost giving in, Shirou tried what he saw Saber do, and channelled his Oracle into his God Arcs. He was able to push back Zouken's claw, even forcing him off-kilter. But the result was what stuck with Shirou.
In his mind, his God Arcs, his Partners, his Unlimited Blade Works, were screaming in pain from the attempt. On the blades, he could see minute cracks, showing how this was too much for them. Besides that, he felt an intense burning pain in his left arm, and, looking over, could see that the tan had begun to continue making its way up his arm, with the neon-green veins flowing through it.
He couldn't help but flash back to what the man on the hill had told him.
"It'll start with your arm, but it'll consume the rest of you later."
Shirou was beginning to feel he should've put more stock in what the man said. But as long as he could use his pain, even his death, to save someone, he would be fine with it.
Ignoring the strange sigh of disappointment in his head, he chased after Zouken. Moving to the leg Saber had been attacking earlier, as Zouken hadn't reformed it, Shirou began to swung at the gaping wound with his Oracle reinforced swings.
In 4 chops, he had severed the leg, causing Zouken, and his God Arcs, to cry out from the pain. Instead of the severed leg deforming and reforming itself, it just stayed there, similar to Shinji's body.
Zouken slightly collapsed due to missing a leg, now no longer having complete balance. He was leaned over, using his claw on the right side to support himself. Shirou took this opportunity to attack Zouken's head, before he could reform his leg.
Jumping, Shirou brought down Kanshou onto the cut in Zouken's head Saber left, and piercing deeply. Zouken flinched, and brought up his left claw to attack Shirou, only for Shirou to parry it. Both of these reinforced actions caused his blades to crack more. Zouken's attack did, however, succeed in dislodging Shirou from his head.
Shirou, tumbling on the floor, brought himself up at the same time as Zouken, who had finally reformed his leg. From that point, the two then began a fast bout of striking and deflecting, from Zouken and Shirou respectively. But, every time Shirou parried a blow, his God Arcs would shatter a little more, until, with one final upwards strike, Shirou's God Arcs had shattered.
While the core part of the blade had remained, most of the extermities had been broken to pieces, like glass. With a cackle, Zouken mocked the boy.
"Haha! Your God Arc has broken!? Do you even understand what that means!? Your God Arc is now dead, and useless against Aragami! Victory is mine!"
He then lunged forward, but felt a chill go down his spine when he saw Shirou's now narrowed steel grey eyes. Raising his now almost entirely tan left arm, Shirou responded,
"Is that what you think? Too bad, you old fool." Clenching his fist, Shirou then yelled out, "Burst!"
At that moment, time seemed to stop for the old Matou. From right in front of him, he could see it. A tiny glimmer, neon-green in colour, just before Shirou's outstretched hand. From that, another glimmer, and another, all differing sizes and shapes, but all on a path towards and around him.
Then, time resumed, and an explosive chain reaction took place. Every glimmer he had seen exploded, causing the next and the next to explode as well, until it entirely engulfed him, burning him from the inside and out, as he could feel the Oracle eating away at him.
Shirou was also blown away, since he was holding the original explosion at point blank. Getting up, and being glad that it was only his hand that was injured and not his Armlet, he groggily looked over to see if Zouken was still there, only to see...
"Hah... hah..."
The old man Zouken, significantly shakier and paler than when he first saw him, standing in the carcass of what was the bug monster Zouken. Zouken was looking at Shirou with fear and shock.
"W-What... What are you!? Your God Arc shattered, but you were still somehow able to control it!? How!? What kind of monster are you!?"
"I'm a monster? Then what does that make you, a bastard that experimented on his own grandchildren, just to become immortal!?"
"It wasn't just to become immortal! It was to fulfill a promise! A promise to... to..."
"To what?"
"I... I can't remember... I just knew I would die before I could achieve it... So I threw myself into researching how to become immortal..."
"..."
Being silent, Shirou began to stalk over to Zouken, who had begun mumbling over why he was doing this, and what his promise was. As Shirou got incredibly close, the Zouken that was self-righteous, and the Zouken that was confused, disappeared for the "normal" Zouken to appear.
"Oh? If you attack me, then who's going to save them?"
He says this gesturing over to Rin, Kota, and Saber, who were all stunned by the massive explosion, and at the black tendrils seeming to be controlled autonomously by Zouken from an unconscious Sakura.
Seeing that they were about to strike, Shirou threw his broken remnants of Kanshou and Bakuya at them, causing them to miss. This, however, gave Zouken the opportunity to, slowly, form a tendril from his arm, piercing Shirou and pushing him back to the other three on his knees.
Seeing Shirou on his knees, impaled and suffering what Kota recognizes as Oracle Cell Erosion, the three tried to reach out for him, but were still in a daze.
"Hahaha. Looks like I win anyways. Wouldn't you say, Emiya?"
Pulling his left arm upwards to grasp onto the tendril, Shirou slowly lowered his right arm, and mumbled something under his breath.
"Hm? What was that, boy?"
Leaning forward, pushing himself further onto the tendril, Shirou repeated, louder,
"Even if it's the end, it's not finished yet!"
He then wrapped his hand around the handle of a blade, and cried out in pain.
"Ah!!"
Rin, Kota, and Sakura, being closer, looked to Shirou's right hand, only to see him holding Excalibur, which had been pushed near the trio by the explosion. They then all cried out in alarm.
"Shirou!"
"Shirou!!"
"Emiya!"
Zouken, in comparison, saw what Shirou was doing and laughed.
"Do you really desire death so much, boy? Are you unaware that touching another God Eater's God Arc results in one being devoured? I could have at least granted you a less painful death. After a few talks."
But Shirou didn't respond. Couldn't. Because he was in his own mind, his plain of blades, trying to overpower this blade, which was calling for its wielder, not him. He was trying to force his Oracle into it, and while it was slightly receptive, it still rejected him and tried to consume him.
This continued on until a voice rang in his mind.
"Enough already."
It was the voice of that man on the hill. Suddenly, Excalibur stopped resisting as much, and Shirou stopped forcing in his Oracle.
"You're not meant to force swords to your will. You are a sword. You're meant to sympathise with it. Now close your eyes, and become one with it."
Doing as he was told, Shirou closed his eyes and focused on himself. He followed the flow of his Bias Factor through his body, until he reached his right hand. From there, he could sense pathways between himself and the blade, but minute ones at that.
Following them, and trying not to force his Oracle into the pathways, he reached the core of Excalibur. With a deep breath, he jumped into the core of Excalibur. The memories of the God Arc.
*Page Break - Around 20 Years Ago*
The God Arc was forged with several others, all of them with the purpose to be the strongest God Arc of their kind, for their strongest wielders.
It was based off of a previous God Arc model, and shared the same name, but was designed to allow an overabundance of Oracle Energy to flow throughout it.
It was a golden Blade, with a blue handle and Buckler, made for use by one person. It was Excalibur, a Sword of Humanity's Hope.
*Page Break*
The first time it was held by its wielder, the wielder was young, 15 years old, and didn't scream, despite the painful process of becoming a God Eater.
She was a Prototype God Eater, named a Servant, designated as Saber. There were six other Prototype Servants, but none of them really knew each other that well.
When the three-bangled Armlet, reminiscent of a handcuff, was attached to her, she was congratulated on her surviving the experiment. She was stiff, and cold, and did not respond.
*Page Break*
The first time the God Arc tasted blood, the wielder was sent on a mission with another God Eater to fight a Kongou. The other God Eater was a man, much taller than Saber, but with the same blonde hair and emerald eyes. Dressed in blue, and wielding the original Excalibur God Arc in all its steel-grey glory, one wouldn't be blamed for thinking the two were related.
This was not the case. The man was here to make sure Saber did alright, and wasn't severely hurt. But he was also here out of concern for her, as the two had known each other since childhood.
The mission went smoothly, with Saber almost directing the Kongou in a single slash. The man merely looked on in concern.
*Page Break*
The first time the God Arc felt something, was the first time in the five years they've been together that its wielder cried. It was raining, and they had been fighting an Orobouros, when, from out of nowhere, an Amaterasu appeared, and took out most of Saber's exhausted team.
With just her and Arthur, the man that had been on her first mission with her, they defeated the Amaterasu, but still took some painful blows.
As the battle winded down, Saber was left to look upon the muddy battlefield, and see the dead forms of her comrades, her family, scattered about. Lancelot, Bedivere, Gawain, Galahad, Tristan, and even Mordred...
But the hardest blow to her was when Arthur fell to his knees, holding his side. Rushing over, Saber asked what was wrong, only to see a deep wound, likely piercing his lung, and a copious amount of blood.
Hugging him from a kneeling position, Saber put weight on his wound, and begged for him to stay, to not leave her behind. All he did was weakly wrap his arms around her and whisper,
"Thank you... Artoria."
Feeling him go limp in her arms, Saber had begun to cry, from the grief of losing everything at once. From that day on, her God Arc would try to send her emotional reinforcement, but was never sure if it was actually heard.
*Page Break*
The first time the God Arc had felt rage, was when its wielder was transferred to the Far East Branch, and was partnered up with Kiritsugu Emiya.
He wielded a simple Shotgun God Arc, that somehow exuded a menacing aura. What was bad were the missions they were deployed on. The eradication of Aragami wasn't bad, if anything it became therapeutic to its wielder.
It was the missions where they killed God Eaters that made Saber, and her God Arc in effect, hate Kiritsugu. They went all over the place, killing God Eaters that had rebelled against Fenrir, God Eaters on the cusp of turning, and even God Eaters that took civilians hostage.
It wasn't necessarily the killing part she hated, which she did. It was the fact that Kiritsugu always approached it with the same empty look in his eye, and never reacted to anything, be it a plea for mercy or a heartfelt thank you. It was because he was like a machine that Saber hated him. Because she was reminded of her own self.
However, on that fateful night, where that hell became a reality, she had found another reason to hate him.
*Page Break*
The first time the God Arc felt nostalgia, and a sense of familiarity, its wielder was standing in front of a boy on the floor, with red hair and golden eyes.
Saber had been brought back to the Far East Branch after 10 years, and her first job was to aid a rookie that had been assaulted by two Vajra. However, what she found was a boy that pulled at her heart with a strange sense of familiarity.
As the two stared at each other, unbeknownst to them, their God Arcs and Armlets began to glow, neon-green and gold respectively. Their moment was interrupted by a Vajra.
*Page Break*
Opening his eyes, Shirou saw, in his world of blades, that Excalibur had stopped resisting. Before he could use it, however, it wanted to say something.
"Shirou Emiya. I will lend you my power. But I ask that you protect my wielder, not just from physical harm, but also from her own self and her broken heart."
Looking at Excalibur, which in his mind had become a man with blonde hair and emerald eyes, similar in appearance to the man Shirou had seen in Excalibur's memories, he nodded, saying,
"I swear I will protect her. I'll swear it on my life."
Smiling, Excalibur stood and smiled.
"Good. Now then," pointing ahead of Shirou, back to reality and Zouken, he continued, "finish him."
In reality, Excalibur, which had its Aragami core working its way up Shirou's arm, had stopped, taking its core back into itself. With that, Shirou slowly pushed himself up, from being on both knees, to one knee, to standing, using the tendril impaling him as support. Then he began to raise his arm, bringing Excalibur upwards, and charging it with what little Oracle he had left, causing more of his body to undergo Oracle Cell Erosion.
"H-How!? That-That cannot be! How are you using someone else's God Arc!? You should be devoured!"
Reaching his peak, Shirou breathed in and out, before bringing the blade down.
"Ex..."
"No!!!"
"CALIBUR!!!"
With that, a massive explosion occurred, a sea of golden light, spreading from Shirou and piercing Zouken, who couldn't react in time.
As the light faded, and Zouken began to turn to dust from having his own Oracle Cells consumed, Shirou dropped Excalibur and collapsed, from the blood loss and the stress on his body and mind.
The three who had been watching the encounter pushed themselves up to help Shirou. As they did, Shinji's corpse also turned to dust, as did Sakura's tendrils, leaving Sakura in her normal appearance.
As the trio took Shirou and Sakura back upstairs, the Operation dubbed "Mad Man's Desire; Black Petals" came to a close.
*Page Break*
Thanks for reading. This is Cee and, sorry for taking longer than usual. This chapter is longer than anything else I've written, so yeah.
First, yes that was a motherfucking JoJo's reference.
Second, I cannot remember what an insect's arms are called, so I deferred to calling them claws.
Third, it was actually an accident to make Reinforcement a thing. I was just like, "Burst Arts. Make attacks stronger. Oh wait, that's like Reinforcement. What do you know?"
Fourth, I tried to make a quote that really fits Fate. Something truly stupid. "Even if it's the end, it's not finished yet!" Did I do okay?
Fifth, I know Rin and Kota have been fairly useless and I'm sorry for that. I just can't actively imagine a 3v1 easily.
Sixth, sorry for taking longer than usual for this. But this chapter is longer than expected, so I couldn't finish it until today.
Thank you to TheOneYouDontSee1and hidingunderyourbed for favouriting and following respectively, and thank you to ptl again and SoftItalics again for reviewing.
Goodbye.
Word count: 3832