The Pledge

For the sake of this world… for what remains, for what is left… I have no choice… We have no time, no way out… except for this one. I… bid all of you farewell… perhaps for just now, perhaps forever… Holy Grails, grant my wish… Mahapralaya!

It was a quiet night on Menagerie, the stars above glittering bright, the soft sounds of wind rushing over the grassy land. The animals, all sleeping, the Grimm prowling far, far away. It was a peaceful, untouched landscape here, nothing but nature's natural beauty for miles around.

But in this place, a single thing stood out. An object of human history laid upon the ground, untouched by time, if covered in a bit of dirt. A red spear, inlaid with the lines that looked like vessels for blood. It laid on the ground, as silent as the night itself…

Before a hand shot out of the ground, grabbing the middle of the spear, and raising it upwards, the hand followed quickly by a man, blue hair, clad in blue and silver, bleeding from several places, wearing weapons stolen from fallen heroes, he shot out of the ground, and then spread his legs, standing above his newly made hole, before belting out to the world.

"I REFUSE TO DIE DAMMIT! WHERE THE HELL DID ALL YOU ASSHOLES GO!?"

Cu Chulainn

Breathing heavily, Cu Chulainn slowly let his shoulders go slack after screaming to the sky. "Where did everyone go? Where am I? This… doesn't like… huh?" he started, extremely confused, turning on his heel and just raising one hand to the back of his head, rubbing it as he looked around at the grasslands, and then up towards the stars. "Did we win?" he asked no one, before looking towards the sky… and raising an eyebrow at the broken half moon, before shrugging, small price to pay for victory if the moon was broken.

Stabbing Gae Bolg into the ground beside him, he did a very quick check of himself… he still had all his limbs, thank god, he had… eh, a few minor stab wounds, a couple slashes, at least one wound to the back but he was fine. Of course to anyone else, his injuries would hardly seem 'minor' but given the alternative, better than dead.

He checked what he had left from his stolen arsenal as well. He still had a single pair of that red bastard's swords, Durandal was stuck to his waist still by a stolen belt, alongside three different katanas one his other hip, that fake assassin's massive odachi was still on his back, alongside David's heavily cracked crook. He had one of Sigurd's daggers in the pouch hanging above his ass, alongside a couple Mystic Codes that the stupid system kept puking out. A vial of Volumen, a couple Origin bullets, the Kid's revolver, one final Fragarach, and- "Let me outta here ack!"

"Shit you're still in there!?" he exclaimed, reaching ruffling around in the bag before pulling out the offending object, and holding it in his hand. The annoyed face of Add greeted him.

"What do you think I left!? I can't exactly go anywhere, you stupid dog!" Add complained, bouncing up and down in Cu's hand, the Lancer giving the small cube a flat look, before turning his hand and facing him towards the moon. "Wait what, Ack!?"

"Hell if I know where we are, get back in the bag, I gotta find out where we are," he said, not caring for the cube's response before putting him back in his pack, Add's muffled response going undignified as Cu grabbed Gae Bolg, and rested it across one shoulder. "Now… that's the real question,"

Shrugging his shoulders, Cu decided to just pick a direction. He knew, or at least assumed the old adamant about 'rising in the east, setting in the west' still held, even if that was usually meant for the sun, he wasn't sure, he just watched the moon for a second to see where it was going… and then settling on thinking that way was west.

"Right, if that's west… North it is then!" he proclaimed, and turned on his heel to start walking, blood following him as he hummed. The bleeding would stop eventually, he'd had worse.

As he was walking, and not really caring too much about his surroundings, he tried to recall what he'd been doing just before… well this. It wasn't very hard, given that was like five minutes ago. He'd been fighting off another set of Servants and those Phantasy Seedling whatevers. Another Columbus, that bastard EMIYA Alter for like the tenth time in the past three hours, that alter of himself again, those twins and yet another copy of that crazy Caster with all the starfish. And that had just been the past five minutes. He'd been backed into a corner and still fighting at that point, even when D'Eon and Teach of all people had finally fallen like thirty seconds earlier. He'd still had a lot left in him, and wasn't planning on dying any time soon when… something had surrounded him, and then everything went white.

Next thing he knew, he was under a mound of dirt, and he'd had to unbury himself by forcing his way out. Stupid gravestones, like he was going to just up and die after all that. Didn't answer any of his current questions though… what the hell had happened?

Seeing as how he wasn't going to get any answers at the moment, he just kept walking, finally taking in the scenery. It was actually quite nice for there to be scenery for once, normally they didn't get any real peace time on missions, it was always fighting, fighting and more-

Cu whipped his head around, and then flipped backwards as something shot out of the grass at him, some sort of black wolf with a white mask. Jumping out of his handstand and back to his feet, he landed with a skid in the dirt and rushed forward, spinning Gae Bolg before stabbing it straight through the monster's head as it was trying to turn to him. He ripped it out, the monster starting to dissolve into dust, and started turning.

"ALRIGHT, WHO THE HELL WANTS SOME!" He belted out, spinning Gae Bolg into a standard position and looking around, his red eyes scanning the grass… found 'em. He ran towards the closest, cutting a swath through the grass as his spear glowed red. He left behind a trail of falling grass as he cut across in an arc with his spear rather than stab, but the smack the to creature's side was enough to take the monster with his spear as he spun it around, forcing the creature to the ground before stabbing it through the skull, then turning and throwing Gae Bolg at another, his spear going straight through its skull as he ripped one of the katanas and Durandal out of their sheaths and rushed towards another, slashing through the grass, the creature dodging backwards, only to receive a stab to the gut, before Cu ripped the katana upwards, splitting the monster vertically before throwing Durandal at another beast, the golden blade going straight through the monster and into the dirt, killing it. Rushing towards it, he sheathed the katana before grabbing Durandal and holding his free hand out, Gae Bolg ripping itself out of the ground and coming back to his hand as he ran forward, rushing northward and kicking up dust in his wake.

After a few seconds of running, he caught sight of another monster… and he grinned, sheathing Durandal before pulling up his legs, letting his momentum carry him before throwing stoving his feet into the dirt, spinning to change his direction and coming to a stop at the side of what appeared to be some giant white armored scorpion. He leap upwards, and slashed at the creature's golden stinger as it was clearly trying to figure out where the hell he'd gone. A quick stab separated the stinger from that tail, causing it to drop onto the creature's back, before Cu smashed his feet downward, slamming the stinger through the creature's exoskeleton before throwing Gae Bolg up into the air, and ripping Add out of his pack.

"Hammer!" he ordered, leaping off the creature's back as the cube gave an ack, before upfolding in his hands into the weapon he'd asked for. He smashed downward, slamming the stinger completely through the monster the creature screeching before falling slack as Cu landed on the ground, Gae Bolg landing next to him as Add refolded back into his cube form.

"Sheesh, bossy ain'tcha." he commented, and Cu just looked at the cube before groaning.

"Yeah yeah, whatever, better this than dead," he muttered, sliding Add back into his pouch and grabbing Gae Bolg, and then starting to walk again. Hopefully his little display had scared whatever had seen him… or whatever was left, off.

It seemed to have worked, he just whistled and walked into the night, letting the landscape around him flow as he thought about the… current situation.

"Well, best guess, Juna used the grails so… we won I guess, boo, should have been thirty seconds earlier… but can't rush this sorta shit can you… so… this Earth? I hope it's Earth… its probably not Earth," Cu started talking to himself, more just musing at this point. He wonder who, if anyone else, was still alive. Gale had taken the survivors with her and Juna to the vault, so… hopefully those five were still kicking, hell Arjuna had to be if the grails had worked, can't wish on them if you're… no wait, that Darnic guy was dead and he was wishing on them, so perhaps he had died. That would suck.

"I'm going to not be pessimistic here and guess Master ain't dead, and by extension, Gale isn't. Jury's out on Hood and the two Casters… otherwise, fuck if I know," he swore, and yawned. He'd been fighting for literally hours at this point. But he'd rather not be monster food, so walking it was.

This continued for several hours, walking from the grass, into a forest, and then out of that and into some somewhat mountainous terrain. Easy enough to scale, just by jumping, and when he reached the top, the sun starting to come up on his side, he leaned forward, looking off into the distance. Barely, he could see it. And by barely, he meant even by a Servants super-human standard, he could just absolutely barely notice the lights in the distance beyond the mountains. It was that faint.

"Welp, no time like the present," he muttered, before cracking his neck, and patting the pouch hanging from his waist. "Hang on in there buddy," he said, before bending down, getting into a runner's stance, Gae Bolg still in one hand… before he took off.

Dust kicked up as he ran towards the edge of his current mountain, before leaping to the next, and then to the next, breaking into a run when the distance was to far, and rapidly approaching the lights as the sun was rising to his right, at the final mountain, he skid to a stop, dirt and rock cracking beneath him as he stopped several feet before the edge, and walked towards it, resting Gae Bolg on his shoulder as he looked over… a rather large, if rustic looking town… city? He was gonna say city. Lots of palm trees, reminded him of his favorite shirt.

"Well shit, civilization, here's hoping the people are friendly," he complained to himself, rubbing the back of his head before leaping off the side of the cliff, sliding down the mountain before coming to a halt at the bottom a fair distance from the largest house of the lot, big manor, kinda reminded him of that temple back in Fuyuki from all those years ago. Course he couldn't just waltz into the big fancy house, he had to see what this place was like.

So he just walked around it towards the nearest bunch of houses that had a street or something, place didn't seem completely finished, and it wasn't some super orderly city. He liked it, even as the sun was coming up, seemed there were still people out and about. But as he got closer and just walked onto a street, he noticed something… odd. He gave a raised eyebrow for just a moment at the small fact that every person he could currently see, all twenty of them, had different animal-like traits. Tails, ears, that guy had fur. Huh, well, that was fun, reminded him of Juna Alter in a way… actually that made sense now, of course a god would make people in his image, so slightly more sense. Whatever, people were people. They gave him some odd looks, for sure, but given he was currently a walking arsenal in blue and silver and still dripping blood and covered in wounds, it made sense.

"What are you all just going to stare?" he said, and started walking, and whistling, paying the people no mind as he just went down the street. He was half tempted to start twirling Gae Bolg, but he'd rather not risk someone getting hurt because he got bored. Still, he just kept going, observing the place as he walked. Seemed his late arrival had kinda left him in a bit of a between time. He was willing to bet some of these people were nocturnal if they were part animal, so given the sun was coming up, they were going to bed, while others would be waking up soon.

He spent the next twenty minutes just walking and observing, people stared at him, but he didn't stare back, he just kept walking until he crested a hill on the main road, looking down at the other side of the city, where the port was… wait was that a partially underwater market? Right, animal people, that meant fish people. Also, place seemed tropical, he could dig it.

Walking towards the port, he spent a few minutes stretching before he reached it, walking onto the boardwalk and just humming at the currently quiet boardwalk. He made out a few fishlike people, literally there was a mermaid in there buying fruit from a guy with wolf ears, and he just decided to sit on the docks and think for a bit. He sighed, his weapons clanking a bit as he closed his eyes.

"Holy shit… I'm tired," he complained, falling backwards against the boardwalk and breathing heavily, listening to his own blood dripping off his body and staining the boardwalk. He closed his eyes… maybe he could rest for a few minutes or something… yeah that sounded nice at this point.

He wasn't sure how long he was laying there when someone spoke to him, but when he opened his eyes, it was still… kinda early, sun wasn't completely up yet. "Excuse me, sir?" he looked at the voice, big man, black hair… nice chest hair, dude looked like a man's man, yellow eyes… he looked human but he knew better, namely he could see the retractable claws on the man's fingers.

"Yeah, what do ya need?" Cu asked, closing one eye and yawning for a second, before sitting up slowly, hearing his back pop at that before turning towards the man, his legs still dangling off the boardwalk.

"Might I ask what you're doing here with… all of those?" he asked, pointing at all the weapons Cu was carrying. Cu shifted his eyes to look around, yep, they had a crowd already, and not a single human in sight, all animal people. Even in the water, where a trail of blood was leading back towards him and out to sea.

"I'm a warrior, why else… otherwise, they're mementos at this point," he complained, slowly pulling his legs up, and standing, looking the large man in the eyes as he rested Gae Bolg across his shoulders again.

The man seemed to be searching for something to say, before looking Cu up and down. "I'm going to ask so that I don't offend you… are you a human or are you a Faunus?" he asked, oh so that was what the animal people were called.

Cu put a finger in his ear, twisting it and pulling out a bit of earwax before flicking it away. "Despite what some people who are probably dead would tell you, and despite my name literally meaning 'hound', I'm human," Cu admitted easily. He'd been compared to a dog often enough it really was surprising, bastard in red was the usual suspect. He stretching for a second as he waited for the man.

"Right… ok then, would you please come with me?" he asked, motioning for Cu to follow him and turning around, Cu just shrugged, and started walking, the crowd parting for the large man as Cu kept his eyes moving a bit. He relaxed when he noticed a distinct lack of weapons, but only a bit. Humans existed, given what the man had just said… but that posed the other question.

Where the hell were the humans?

"Mind if I ask your name?" Cu spoke as the man led him down the main street. He turned his head towards him for a second.

"Ghira, you?"

"Cu,"

Simply, easy, direct, both of them accepted the other's name and just kept walking, Cu recognizing that he was being led towards the largest house in the village, the manor, that meant this guy was the lord or something like that. Good, someone who could get off his ass when there was a problem, even if Cu was currently that problem. He could see there was a few guards at the manor, and people heading inside, great he had a welcoming party. He really hoped he wouldn't have to kill anyone.

But once he got inside, his paranoia was laid to rest at the sight of what appeared to literally just be a doctor and a pair of nurses sitting at a small couch, the big man taking a seat himself as Cu sat on a wooden chair, groaning for a second as he looked at the medical people, and then at the big man. "What you think I need medical aid?"

"Given the extensive injuries you have?" Really, extensive!? These were minor wounds at worst… then again, that was for him, ok, made slightly more sense now, these would probably be seen as far more extensive for someone who wasn't him. At worst he was experiencing some minor blood loss, but so long as Gale wasn't jumping at his throat he'd live.

"So, what's the big problem?" Cu asked, leaning forward, his shoulders going slack as the big man, Ghira spoke.

"I wanted to ask where you'd come from, given the fact you apparently walked out of the wastes, heavily injured, heavily armed, and not only that… you're human," Ghira started, leaning forward as Cu sighed.

"I would ask for a drink or a cig, but… let's put it this way. It's a helluva long story, so I hope you've got time," Cu started, and at Ghira's nod, he started recounting what to anyone would be a fantastical tale… with his own interjected blaise comments of course.

AN: HE LIVES! No Carnival Phantasm joke for this dog. I actually had a coin flipped and dice rolled to see if Cu even survived, turns out, dog has his lucky day. In any case, a surprise chapter for all of you, so I hope to hear what you have to say about it. In any case, our favorite boy in blue still has a story to tell. See all of your reviews and whatever the person updating TV tropes has to say soon!