Rin and Saber burst out of the front door of the castle, into the courtyard. Looking around, they tried to find where the explosion happened, but immediately had their eyes drawn to the pale monstrosities standing around everywhere.
They were like Ogretails, but white, furless, and covered in blood. They were all staring towards the back of the castle, but had turned around at the sound of the castle doors opening. They looked at the duo before looking back to whatever was behind the castle.
"W-what are they?"
"I... I do not know."
The two didn't know what to do, so they just watched. Eventually, the sound of combat reached their ears. Realizing it came from the back of the castle, they looked at each other and nodded, before moving from the entrance to the side of the castle. But when they did...
"Roooaaaarr!!"
One of the Aragami-like things had leapt at them as they were walking. Rin was surprised at the sudden attack, while Saber immediately reacted, impaling the Aragami-thing through the eye, killing it.
"Are you okay Rin?"
Offering Rin her hand, Saber pulled Rin up. Standing, Rin thanked Saber.
"Y-Yeah. Let's go."
Together they continued to the back of the castle. They were attacked twice more, but they were both ready and quickly dispatched their enemies. When they rounded the corner to the back of the castle, they were greeted with the sight of multiple Aragami-thing corpses, Berserker fighting more of them, and Shirou fighting a bird thing.
"What is going on!?"
When Shirou had charged at Jubstacheit, Jubstacheit's first instinct was to lash out, make Shirou stumble. With another tearing sound, his right arm tore apart into bloody tendrils, whipping out at Shirou.
They came from three directions, above him and to both sides. With a slight click of his tongue, Shirou leapt back, out of his guess on Jubstacheit's range, and threw Bakuya at him.
Seeing the incoming blade, Jubstacheit flinched back and rose his left arm, forcing the bones within to tear out of his arms in something like a brace, which caused his tendrils to return back to him.
While Bakuya pierced his bone brace, stopping only an inch from piercing his face, Shirou took the time between throwing and Jubstacheit's blocking to rush him. Right in front of him, Shirou took hold of Bakuya, and thrust Kanshou into his unguarded abdomen.
Without any resistance, Kanshou slid straight through Jubstacheit's body, up to the hilt. With a pained gasp, Jubstacheit spat out some blood, as it poured out of his stomach wound and onto Shirou's hand.
"N-No... It can't... end like this..."
Raising his now normal right hand, he grabbed Shirou's shoulder.
"I won't... let it end like this... I will... restore our family!"
Then he began to change. He threw his head back with a scream as his entire body began to tear apart. With his arms outstretched, his entire body seemed to grow. His arms elongating beyond their flesh, and his abdomen growing larger, ripping apart his skin and his robe.
As his bones grew and his flesh tore, the skin and bones from his legs reformed to attempt to cover his new form, creating tendrils wrapped around his ribcage and arms, and also creating tendrils like feathers near the bottom of his ribcage and under his arms.
As he grew, Kanshou slid out of his stomach, while Bakuya stayed in his arm. Shirou looked up towards Jubstacheit, now in a form reminiscent of a bird. With an annoyed sigh, Shirou asked,
"What is it with all you old men turning into horrifying monsters?"
His only response was a ferocious roar from Jubstacheit.
Jubstacheit had taken flight, his 'wings' somehow supporting his body's weight, yet not rising above the castle. His 'feathers' on his 'tail' elongated and began to lash out at Shirou. While they were easily dodged, Shirou didn't have an actual idea of how to approach the situation. Jubstacheit was flying in the air, not high, but high enough where he wouldn't be able to reach just by jumping. He couldn't use a ranged attack with his bow because the other half of his God Arc was stuck in Jubstacheit's 'wing'.
Dodging some more tendrils swipes, Shirou continued thinking. He could throw Kanshou, but that would leave him undefended while it was flying. When another tendril came for him, Shirou side-stepped it and grabbed onto it with his spare hand, ignoring the sting of foreign Oracle Cells interacting with his own.
When Jubstacheit roared again and retracted his tendrils, Shirou tried to hold on, and succeeded long enough to get airborne, only for the tendrils to split apart into smaller tendrils and slip out of his grip, before attacking him from all angles. With a curse, Shirou tried to fend off the tendrils. While he managed to get most of them, the smaller ones and the ones in his blind spots stabbed him. With gusto, he quickly severed those tendrils and disconnected himself from Jubstacheit.
On the floor again, and panting, Shirou took a quick status check. His right thigh had some small wounds, as did his stomach and left shoulder. Shirou honestly had no idea what to do, no ingenious idea to take Jubstacheit down.
"What is going on!?"
Looking over in surprise, he saw Rin and Saber staring at him, Berserker, the Einsberns, and Jubstacheit. When he noticed them, he had an idea.
"Rin! Saber! We need a hand! Rin, I need you to shoot the bird! Saber, can you give Berserker a hand!?"
When he saw the two nod, Shirou couldn't help but smile in slight satisfaction before going back to a neutral expression. As Rin reached him, she began taking potshots at Jubstacheit, aiming mainly for the ribcage and the head. Turning, he saw Saber assisting Berserker in the wholesale slaughter of the Einsberns, thinning the crowd considerably.
"Berserker, I need a hand here! A fastball special!"
Slicing another Einsbern apart, Berserker looked over to Shirou in confusion, before he realized what Shirou meant and nodded. Previously, Kota had told the two at some point about something the characters did in Bugarally, a fastball special.
Raising his God Arc to his left side with both hands, the blade turned diagonally, Berserker looked at Shirou and waited. With a nod, Shirou sprinted towards Berserker before jumping, landing his feet on Berserker's God Arc. In the next instant, after Shirou's momentum had transferred to Berserker's God Arc, Berserker turned at the waist, before swinging his God Arc and shooting Shirou off in a blur of black and red.
Suddenly, Shirou was right up in Jubstacheit's face, and brought down Kanshou on Jubstacheit's head before, using his head as a fulcrum, jumping towards Bakuya with Kanshou in hand. Grabbing Bakuya, he then began to pull and push before just bringing Kanshou down on the joint, ripping it open and letting Bakuya free.
With a cry of pain, Jubstacheit fell to the floor, Shirou having already hopped off. Jubstacheit, now with an almost severed right 'wing' and a gaping hole where his head was, feebly struggled to get up. At that moment, Berserker and Saber had just gotten done with killing the remaining Einsberns.
All at once, the four attacked Jubstacheit. Shirou went for the head, severing it and chopping up the brain, while Saber and Rin handled both of his 'wings', and Berserker began to crush his ribcage, intentionally trying to go for the heart. After a good while of attacking him, the four stopped and checked to make sure he was actually down. When they were certain, they moved away from him and the Einsberns, in between them. With some panting, they began to talk.
"What... What is that thing? What are any of these things?"
"Yes, I would like to know as well."
"Hah. Well that," pointing to Jubstacheit, Shirou continued, "is Jubstacheit von Einsbern."
"What!? How!?"
"I don't know. Considering him and Zouken, it seems implanting Oracle Cells in humans, uncorrected by Bias Factor, turns them into horrible, shapeshifting monsters."
"Okay, but what are they?"
At that, Shirou's expression went still, before he looked away and asked,
"They're... the Einsberns."
Rin and Saber looked uncomprehending for a moment, before their expressions changed to realization and horror. Before they could say anything, Shirou continued.
"Jubstacheit, he... he did something to them. Turned them into those things. Don't feel bad. The best we could have done was put them out of their misery."
Despite saying this, Shirou still blamed himself for not having the strength he needed to save them, and it was obvious to the others. As the quartet stood solemnly, a slight twitching went unnoticed by them. The twitching grew stronger and spread, until, with the only warning being the shifting of dirt and a mocking caw, a tendril shot out from Jubstacheit's 'corpse', coming right for Shirou's head.
No one could react in time. The sound of flesh parting, of blood falling to the ground, and Shirou crying out in shock at what he saw echoed.
"Berserker!"
For when the tendrils came for his head, the only person who could react, the only person who saw before it was too late, was Berserker. He pushed Shirou out of the way and took the blow, with it piercing through his heart.
Jubstacheit seemed to let out a disappointed sigh, before retracting his tendrils and pushing himself upwards. Then, with speed several magnitudes faster than what was shown previously, Jubstacheit flew upwards, beyond their range. At the same time, the previously-thought dead Einsberns began to stand up, the ones that were in pieces being reattached with fleshy tendrils.
Our heroes, meanwhile, had gathered around the downed Berserker in worry. Even though he was pierced through the heart, meaning his body and mind had been healed, it was still worrying for him to get stabbed in the heart. With a pained grunt, Berserker pushed himself up, telling them he would be fine while drawing their attention to the enclosing ring of Einsberns.
From there, the combat renewed. But instead of being the pushovers they were before, the Einsberns were all moving faster, fighting more ferociously, and were rebounding from fatal wounds, just getting up again and again.
All the while, Jubstacheit was attacking from the skies, sending out tendrils when they weren't looking, divebombing them, being a general nuisance. He too would heal from whatever damage he took.
And as they fought and fought, they were worn down more and more. The situation got desperate enough that Shirou and Saber had to use their high-cost Oracle attacks. Saber had released a wide Excalibur Strike, hitting most of the Einsberns, while Shirou released a Caladbolg at Jubstacheit, damaging him and sending him away, but he just got back up.
The fight seemed hopeless, yet none of them gave up. Shirou kept sending arrows at Jubstacheit, Saber and Berserker kept the Einsberns at bay, and Rin did both, launching Gandrs at Jubstacheit and any Einsbern's that slipped by. The only upside was when the realization was made that their attacks were having an effect. The more they died, the easier it became to kill them, the weaker they got, until eventually they would just stop and fade away.
When they realized that, their perception of the battle changed. They didn't have to kill all of the enemies at once, they just had to kill until they couldn't get back up. It was a battle of attrition, but they were the ones with the disadvantage.
And those disadvantages began to stack up.
It was without warning that Jubstacheit divebombed one of the Einsberns, before flying back up and crushing it, integrating its bones, flesh, and mass into his body and becoming bigger. While the four were tired from the continuous fighting, they were still able to understand that this was a very bad thing.
While Jubstacheit had been getting slowly weaker the more Shirou and Rin attacked him, he seemed to regain his strength and speed after devouring the Einsbern. He went for another one, but this time, they were prepared, attempting to cripple Jubstacheit by attacking his wing, grounding him. But all he did was caw in annoyance before sending tendrils at them, slightly more numerous than before. Then, he took off and devoured that Einsbern, becoming more developed and stronger.
And it continued until, of the twenty Einsberns there were, only five remained, and Jubstacheit went from looking like a bloody, decomposed mockery of a bird to being almost entirely covered in pale, white flesh, his 'feathers' now more numerous, and his speed and strength much greater than before.
When he had consolidated this strength, he then began his true assault on the quartet. He began with Shirou. With a squawk, he flew towards Shirou, using his now numerous tendrils to block any shots coming from Rin, and swung some tendrils at Shirou. They were all coming from his right side, so he dodged to the left, only to be surprised by one of the tendrils Jubstacheit had kept out of combat coming right at him, striking him in the gut and sending him away.
Before the others could respond, Jubstacheit landed in between the three left standing and twirled, knocking Rin and Saber off their feet while Berserker only stumbled. Now with an opportunity, Berserker planted his feet and brought down his God Arc on Jubstacheit's tail, pinning it.
With a roar, he planted his feet on Jubstacheit's tail before launching himself, his sword in hand, and used one of his other Oracle Abilities. As opposed to Shirou's Caladbolg, Saber's Excalibur Strike, and Lancer's Gae Bolg, Berserker's Oracle attack was a combo. He called it...
"Nine Lives!"
In an instant, red lines of Oracle Energy worked up his arm as he suddenly began swinging his sword, fast enough that it was barely visible. It was only a moment, but nine slashes had been dealt, each at a vital point on Jubstacheit's form. His wing-joints, his neck, his brain, his rump, his flanks, and two criss-crossing strikes on his abdomen, estimatedly around where his heart could be.
When Berserker landed from his attack, on top of Jubstacheit, he reviewed his own attack. He was rusty from not having used the skill in a long time. After all, back when he was younger, he could deal a hundred more effective blows in the same time. The secret behind his technique was that it wasn't his God Arc itself that was cutting the enemy, if anything it merely grazed them. It was the blades formed of Oracle Energy being released after each strike that cut his enemies to pieces.
So, as Jubstacheit fell apart into more pieces, Berserker moved to get off of him, only to be struck from behind by more tendrils. Since he wasn't paying attention, too sure in the fact that Nine Lives was an instant kill, he was launched away, his God Arc going in Shirou's direction.
Shirou, who had until that point been getting over being sent flying and staring at Berserker's attack in awe, made to stand up, only for some of the tendrils Jubstacheit still had attached to impale him, sticking him to the wall. Grunting at the pain in his stomach, right next to the earlier wound, and in his left leg, Shirou looked to his God Arcs, which had also been flung away from him. Reaching out, he tried to pull his God Arcs to him, only for them to move a little then stop due to his lack of Oracle Energy.
Rin was in a daze, being the member of the group with the lowest Endurance, barely conscious, while Saber had also gotten up, but was hit by Berserker's falling form. As the remaining Einsbern's began to approach the undefended quartet, some more tendrils burst from Jubstacheit and devoured them, using the energy he gained to pull his body back together.
Once more on his feet, he surveyed his enemies. Kiritsugu's boy was pinned to the wall, the girl with black hair was unconscious, while the blonde one was indisposed. As a precaution, Jubstacheit decided to pin her to the floor too. The only threat he had to face was the hulking giant. But without a weapon, even he wouldn't be able to do much damage.
With a confident ruffle of his 'wings', Jubstacheit made to end Berserker, aiming all of the tendrils not currently impaling someone at him. With a growl, Berserker looked for a possible solution to the situation, only to come up empty. While it wasn't the first time he faced impossible odds, this time he felt his trump card would be the end of him. Even though there was still Oracle stored in his heart, he didn't have as much faith in it as usual.
With another growl, he began to let his mind sink into madness.
Shirou was watching, pinned to the wall with his God Arcs out of hand. He couldn't fight. He couldn't even get up. He was useless. All he could do was watch. But seeing Berserker growl, seeing the red lines of Oracle spread up his arms, Shirou couldn't help but feel dread. He knew. He wasn't sure how, but he knew. Berserker seemed to know too, seemed to accept it, and that set Shirou's mind ablaze.
Why is he still fighting, even if he knew it was a lost cause? Why would he put his life on the line, knowing it was already forfeit? Shirou couldn't understand. But a part of him did. The part that had bloomed the greenery of life, of achieving something that can be, of living for something he can do. That part of him knew, and could see how hypocritical Shirou was being, the desert in his heart preventing him from understanding.
Shirou just wanted to help, to be able to save someone, someone he cares about, someone Illya cares about. He wanted to save everyone. He didn't want to watch someone else die, because he couldn't save them. It was in these thoughts that Shirou felt a twitch at the edge of his senses.
It was foreign, and it was prodding, trying to grab his attention. When he did, the foreign feeling, the entity, began to speak. Its voice was rusty, as if it hadn't spoke in a long time. Beyond this, the voice seemed to have no recognisable characteristics. No gender, no age, just rust and a sadness.
Shirou wasn't able to understand its words, but felt a pulling sensation on his vision, dragging his eyes to the right. And there, standing solemnly, was Berserker's Nameless God Arc in all its jagged glory. When he saw it, the voice became clearer, and he understood what it said.
"Pick me up. He needs his weapon, so pick me up."
Shirou would have wondered more on the trustworthiness of the voice if he had a bit more blood and a bit less self-loathing. Without thought he stretched his hand out, reaching for the God Arc. He was just a few centimetres too far away to reach. So he dragged himself, even as the tendrils tore further into him. He dragged and tore until his outstretched fingers surrounded the God Arc's handle. With a breath, he grabbed the handle.
And was brought into the infinite plain of blades. He was sat atop the hill, his back against Unlimited Blade Works, and in his hand was Berserker's God Arc. But before him, on that hill, was not Archer with his red cloak, but was instead a shifting figure, more similar to a living shadow.
Shirou looked at the figure in confusion. Why was he pulled in here? How did the God Arc talk to him despite no connection being formed? Before he could voice any of this, the figure spoke.
"Sympathize with me. Please. It might be the only way for you to save my wielder."
With that, the figure offered their hand, giving Shirou direct access to their core rather than having to coax it out of them like with Excalibur. With a deep breath, Shirou took the figure's hand and entered its core.
The God Arc had been forged as a replacement, using pieces of the original God Arc as a base. The original God Arc had a name, a grand one meant to inspire hope. But the name was forgotten over time, along with its wielder's own. It was regarded as a tool, both by its creators and its wielder, yet it couldn't help but connect to its wielder.
Its wielder was apart of an experiment for Prototype God Eaters, named Servants, and had been given the designation Berserker. The reformed God Arc was a Buster Blade, with a black handle and a stone grey blade, jagged on the blade's edge.
The first time the God Arc had been held by its wielder was just after its creation. Its wielder appeared the same as he did in the present, just with less muscle tone and paler skin. He took the God Arc in hand and began to swing it, getting a feel for its weight.
Immediately after a few test swings, Berserker opted to go on a mission to eliminate Aragami. When asked whether he wanted assistance, he declined, believing his God Arc would be more than enough.
The first time the God Arc tasted the blood of its enemies, it had easily felled a Vajra in a single blow. Without Oracle, or any true killing intent, Berserker swiped his God Arc against the Vajra's pounce and split it in twine. But Berserker was not satisfied. He wanted to grasp a better understanding of the God Arc, and how he should wield it. So he walked on, and began to slaughter more and more Aragami until he was satisfied.
The first time the God Arc felt something beyond the leftover feelings from its previous incarnation as a God Arc, its wielder had committed an atrocity.
It had started out as a normal day. Berserker was requested to go out to fight some more Aragami. Specifically, a Deusphage Aragami, a new type of Aragami in Greece.
The Deusphage had been sighted before in other countries, and had been named Zeus. He was chosen because he was the strongest God Eater in the Boeotia Branch, but likely also because of the irony given his name.
Normally, on tough missions such as these, he would have gone with his usual teammates, Medea, Atalanta, and Jason, but they were all busy with their own missions. So instead, he went with his closest partner, the person he loved with all his heart. His wife, Megara. The two had been put on many missions together, and had begun to grow closer. Eventually, they fell in love. And that love served as a strength to Berserker.
They had arrived in a grassy plain that seemed to stretch on and on. Floating about the plain was the Zeus, looking like a black Sariel with purple Oracle Energy as opposed to yellow. Berserker had never been a good match up with Sariels, due to their flighty manoeuvres and their area-wide attacks against any who got too close. If the reports from the other Branches was any good, then the Zeus' were quicker and stronger than Sariels. Luckily, Megara was more suited to Sariels, being a ranged God Eater and all.
So, they engaged Zeus, and fought and fought, until victory was eventually within their grasp. Then it all came falling down. Suddenly, from under the ground, another Aragami appeared. It was a Venus, and it devoured the weakened Zeus. With a roar, its body shuddered, before becoming larger and seemingly more powerful.
In the next moment, the Venus charged for Megara, and Berserker saw red. Without a thought, he used Madness Enhancement, and began to rip apart the Venus. While it wasn't the first time he had used Madness Enhancement, his skin being a shade now comparable to ash testifying that, he had never used it with such raw anger before. So as he tore apart the Venus, he was torn apart too, his ash-grey skin turning darker.
He kept stabbing and slicing and ripping, and whenever the Venus tried to attack him, whether it was with its horns or its various Aragami attacks, Berserker merely held out his hand, caught the attack, then sliced the offending limb apart. Over and over and over, he kept stabbing and slashing and ripping and ripping and ripping, until his God Arc was covered in blood and his vision disappeared, and he kept ripping and ripping and ripping and ripping and ripping--
Until, with a solitary click, his heart was blown out by an Oracle Bullet. As the Oracle Energy in his heart healed his body and his mental state, he looked down to see Megara's God Arc pointed at his chest, with her hand over the trigger and shaking. Before he could ask why, his vision drifted lower. Her body... Her body was...
Her body was torn apart. It was a miracle she was even still alive, let alone able to function. While her heart was intact, her chest cavity had been exposed, and her midsection torn off. He looked and looked, and looked to his God Arc, then looked back, and couldn't deny the truth he had created.
That he... That he had...
That he had, in his madness, slaughtered his wife.
With a deep sense of sorrow, he dropped his bloodstained God Arc and knelt down to Megara, reaching to cradle her before hesitating at the copious amount of blood - her blood - on his hands. As he closed his eyes, and felt a stinging sensation in them, he suddenly felt a smooth, but cold, object touching his skin.
Opening his eyes, he saw Megara, still somehow alive, looking at him with eyes full of love, despite the awful crime he had just committed. Then, with one final whisper, she said his name, one last time.
"H...r...es..."
As the light faded from her eyes, and her hand fell from his face, Berserker released a roar of such grief that it shook even the heavens themselves. At least, if this world even had such a place.
The first time the God Arc felt hope, it had been over two decades since Megara's death. In that time, Berserker never forgave himself, and would always wander, never staying in one place, always pushing himself beyond his limits until his skin had turned lead-grey and he had become a giant.
But when Berserker had fought Shirou Emiya, and lost by default, he was brought to the Far East Branch and met many people. But the one that stood out in his mind was Illyasviel von Einsbern. In terms of appearance, they were totally opposite, as well as in personality. But it was Illya's straightforward attitude that drew Berserker's attention. That and how her young eyes seemed to hide a deep pain.
So, as the him of the past would have done long ago, he stuck with her, tried to make her happy and forget about whatever was haunting her, at least for a moment. Eventually, in Berserker's heart, his bond with Illya became what could have been. Without meaning to, Illya had become something like... a daughter to him. Like the daughter he never had.
While part of him wanted to run, to not one day hurt this person he cares about, another, larger, part of him wanted to stay by her side, to watch her grow and survive. It was that desire that gave him hope. Hope to find something to live for.
The first time the God Arc felt desperation, true desparation, it had been separated from Berserker by Jubstacheit. It was flung away, and could only watch as its wielder began to give in to madness. Could only watch as his life came to an end. But it knew, it knew it had to be there, by its wielder's side, by its partner's side. It didn't belong anywhere else.
With that desperation, it searched for a way to reach him, before spying Shirou Emiya, pinned to the wall. Ever since Berserker had fought Shirou, the God Arc knew there was something odd about the boy. When it first struck Unlimited Blade Works, it was shown a glimpse of a whole other world, a plain of blades. One of the things it saw was a perfect replica of itself within, along with many other blades.
After that, the God Arc realized that Shirou must have some form of connection with other God Arcs. So it reached out to him. And he responded.
Then, they connected.
Once more in the plain of blades, Shirou looked up to the shadowy figure, only to see that they now had more of a form. Instead of just shadow, the figure now wore a black cloak that obscured all of their body, revealing nothing.With a slight bow, the figure asked,"Please, reach my wielder. I know that you're the only one who can."
Shirou looked at the figure, who know had a distinctly feminine voice, more similar to a snarky older woman.
"Of course. But why did you have to..."
"That is because, if I didn't, then you wouldn't be able to understand him. You wouldn't understand his motivation. And you wouldn't understand how you can save him."
At this, Shirou looked confused. Save him? How could he save him? They both had the feeling that he would die, so how? As he went to ask, the figure answered his question.
"Saving someone doesn't always mean keeping them from death. Sometimes, it can mean reminding someone of something important, something that should never be forgotten."
With a delicate chuckle, a stray wind seemed to blow through the infinite desert and shifted the figure's robes. The hood moved slightly, and revealed the smooth Caucasian skin of the figure's chin, and a strand of auburn hair hanging next to it.
"Call for him. Remember, his name is..."
"Heracles!"
The proclamation echoed throughout the courtyard. Berserker and Jubstacheit, the two other people still conscious, looked over to Shirou. While he was still pinned to the wall, he had assumed a kneeling stance, the impaled leg being the one he was leaning on. Jubstacheit had felt him shuffling, but didn't think he would be able to do anything. And above Shirou's head, held in both hands, was Berserker's God Arc, held parallel to the ground.
"Take it!"
Twisting his body slightly, and tearing wider holes in himself in the process, Shirou swung himself back around, throwing Berserker's God Arc to him. As the God Arc neared Berserker, his mind was racing. Heracles. Heracles. He knew that name. He knew that name, because it was a name he had known ever since he was born. It was his name.
In an instant, his mind was drawn back to that day. As her hand laid upon his face, and she said, with eyes full of love, his name.
"My name... My name is... My name is Heracles! Carve it into your soul, and never forget it!"
With a roar, Berserker, no, Heracles, caught his God Arc and continued using Madness Enhancement. But something had changed. Instead of exuding a feeling of resignation, he was now exuding relief, as if he no longer had to worry about something. The red veins worked their way up his right arm, covering his entire body and turning both of his eyes red.
With another roar, he engaged Jubstacheit. He did not deal nine fatal blows in an instant. Nor did he deal a hundred. His blows were not assisted with a blade of Oracle Energy. But he kept swinging and chopping and ripping. Every blow he dealt tore Jubstacheit apart, and he was injured in turn, a tendril tearing through him, trying to stop his constant assault.
As he fought, as he was torn apart and tore apart in turn, his lead-grey skin had begun to darken, spreading from his wrist upward. Eventually, his skin had turned black, deeper than midnight, contrasting strongly with the glowing red lines running all over his body. The battle wore on so long, Jubstacheit had to take his tendrils out of Shirou and Saber to continue attacking Heracles.
Eventually, it came to an end. Heracles, still mad, stopped moving. For before him, Jubstacheit von Einsbern laid dead. He knew it in his soul, in what was left of his mind. He had won. Slowly, Jubstacheit's body began to vanish, beginning at the chest and working its way up, until it eventually reached the many various tendrils piercing Heracles, in his arms, his legs, and around his chest. As they faded, the bleeding wounds from the tendrils began to pour blood, no longer being plugged.
Then, he slowly fell to his knees, his God Arc falling from his hands. Shirou, who had been watching in awe at the battle, quickly stood up and, after getting over the quick dizzy spell, moved to the wounded Heracles. On the way, he picked up Kanshou, and then keeled next to Heracles, putting his free hand on his shoulder and pushing Kanshou through his heart.
Heracles' body began to heal, the wounds closing slowly, dreadfully slowly, before suddenly coming to a stop, the wounds still open and bleeding. Groaning, Heracles opened his eyes, and looked to Shirou.
"Shirou... You said... my name..."
Leaving Kanshou within Heracles, Shirou looked into his eyes with concern.
"Heracles... Yeah, I did. I figured it would be nice to know, you know?"
"Yeah... Yeah, it is nice... I feel... content... Thank you... Shirou..."
Then, slowly, Heracles smiled a familiar smile. One Shirou had seen a long time ago, within a world of flames. It was the smile of one who had been saved.
"Yeah... Don't worry about it."
A silence spread between the two, before Hercules said,
"Hey, Shirou... I don't think... I'm gonna make it... The Oracle around my heart... It's all gone... Must've been used up earlier..."
At that, Shirou's fear was confirmed. And then he felt torn. Torn between the sorrow of Heracles' death, of not being able to save his life, and the satisfaction of being able to save him, letting him pass on in peace. Torn between an eternal desert and a grassy field.
With a sigh, Heracles closed his eyes and muttered out,
"Thank you, Shirou... Illya..."
Shirou knelt by his side for another minute, before slowly standing and slowly shuffling away. He shuffled, going around the courtyard to the entrance of the castle. Making his way inside, he continued shuffling until he reached Jubstacheit's office. There, in the same chair as earlier, was Illya, still asleep. Going over, he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear before picking her up in a princess carry. Then he radioed for Sakaki before making his way back outside to the others.
For on that day, Heracles had passed. And so too had the Operation dubbed 'Family's Pride; Black and White'.
Thank you for reading. This is Cee and, sorry for taking so long. School be like that sometimes, huh? Honestly, I feel this doesn't live up to the hype of the last two chapters, or even of the Zouken fight. Sure, it's longer, but it just feels less, ya know? I don't know. Do you guys still like this? I hope you do. It'll probably take me a bit to know what to do next. Probably a little epilogue of the Operation.
First, Jubstacheit's Aragami form was loosely based off of the Storch Ritter CE. For those that don't play F/GO, It's the birds Illya made out of her own hair.
Second, without realizing, Jubstacheit shifted from Resident Evil monster, to actually a Resident Evil monster that refuses to die, to a Prototype protagonist in terms of appearance and ability. Crazy.
Third, the God Arc scene. I feel that it also doesn't live up to the hype of Excalibur, but it's alright. With those, I'm trying a thing I've seen in some other Fate/Stay Night Fanfictions. A particular example would be Fake x Fate, a Fate crossover with Highschool DxD, and how, when Shirou Analyses a new weapon, or Traces a cool one, it has the 7 steps of Tracing and a description for each part. It's fucking cool. So that's what I'm trying, just very differently.
Thank you to hallowstorm and GaeAssail for following.
Goodbye.
Word count: 5647