Day 4: Kotomine — The Judgement Of The King

Kirie Kotomine was still reflecting on his encounter with Shirou Emiya when he felt a disturbance in the bounded field enclosing the church. A Servant was trespassing on what should be neutral ground. Not many Masters were foolish enough to incur the Overseer's wrath by breaking such an important rule. Of course, in this irregular Grail War, there were Servants who didn't have Masters to inform them of such important details as the rules regarding the Church.

Kotomine walked towards the intruding presence. As he saw it, he had little reason to fear for his life. The highest probability was that the Servant was one of the aberrants who had appeared without a Master. In that case, it would not want to waste its limited prana on fighting him; if anything, it would probably wish to make a contract with him in order to preserve its own existence. Even in the case that the Servant did have a Master, it had more likely come to clandestinely meet with him rather than pick a fight. From his own experiences in the past Grail War, he knew that the Church's vaunted neutrality was an elaborate sham, and that there was a history of the Overseer collaborating with a chosen Master behind the scenes. The Master he'd intended to make his pawn, Bazett Fraga McRemitz, had ended up declining his offer to work with her, but one of the other Masters might have decided to make a gesture. Shinji Matou had come by some time ago whining about Berserker Heracles having an unfair advantage, but Kotomine did not trust him enough to make use of him — not when the possibility existed that Zouken Matou might yet make a move.

The possibility that the Servant really had been sent with orders to kill him did occur to Kotomine, but even that prospect didn't intimidate him. As Overseer, it was Kotomine's privilege to carry the unused Command Spells left behind by the Grail in previous Wars. He bore on his arm eight of those potent magic crests. If necessary, they could lend him the power to slay even a Servant.

Kotomine entered the room where the Servant had broken and found himself looking at a slender young girl with chestnut hair, wearing a pink dress and a flowing black cape. Servant Caster, then. Now this was interesting. Kotomine knew that the Master who had originally summoned the Casters was dead, slain by one of his own treacherous Servants. One of the Casters had been sustaining itself by consuming souls under the guise of 'gas leaks', but the other had seemingly been getting along just fine without an external source of prana — despite expending a large amount of energy in a battle against Berserker in Einzbern forest. A Servant without a Master could be quite disruptive in the short term, but was ultimately fated to disappear. A Servant with no need for a Master, however, could present a far more lasting problem. Gilgamesh, having achieved permanent incarnation at the end of the previous War, was all the proof anybody needed of that.

The Servant was methodically searching the room, as though looking for valuables. It was almost as if she was trying to rob him. He almost dismissed the notion as ridiculous: since a losing Servant would return to the Throne of Heroes and leave their material possessions behind, while a winning Servant would receive infinite wealth and power from the Grail (or so they believed), there was no reason for a Servant to be interested in common, mortal wealth. However, it occurred to him that the Caster's apparent ability to survive in the world indefinitely without a Master might change things. Though rare, it was not unheard of for Servants to answer the Grail's summons for reasons other than a desire for the holy vessel itself. Usually, their Masters would force them to stay on task; but a Servant had no need of a Master might simply ignore the Grail altogether and make a life for itself seeking mortal riches and pleasures.

But that would not serve Kotomine's needs. He needed the Servants to fight and die, so that the Grail could take in their souls and use their energy to birth the thing which slumbered within it. In this case, it seemed he would need to take the initiative and incite a little conflict.

"Greetings, Servant Caster." Kotomine said, stepping openly into the room. "What brings you to my Church, my child?"

To the Caster's credit, she didn't seem surprised. She must have already sensed Kotomine observing her. As he'd intended, of course; with her attention on him, there was less chance she would detect the Church's other resident.

"Honestly?" the Servant said. "I saw your bounded field and figured that might be some magical stuff here worth stealing."

"What a direct answer." Kotomine said. "I must praise you for your honesty. However, it is not wise to steal the treasures of a king."

"Ha!" the young Caster laughed. "I've stolen from kings before. Hell, I've overthrown kings before. They're just like everybody else; in fact, if anything, they're usually a fair bit fatter and stupider. And let me tell you, grandpa; you don't look like any kind of king to me."

"I was not speaking of myself." Kotomine said.

He stepped aside, and from the shadows behind him, Gilgamesh strode forth. The Caster's comments had done nothing to endear her to the Babylonian king, who looked on her with a disdainful scowl.

"And what have we here?" he asked. "A lowly thief, who would dare profane my treasures by robbing them with her unworthy hands."

"Hold on just one second." the Caster said. "You're a Servant, right? That means you don't have any possessions except the equipment you were summoned with. So I'm not exactly stealing anything from you."

"Wrong." Gilgamesh said authoritatively. "This entire world is my garden; therefore, all its wealth belongs to me. Any who would steal is in violation of my law, and must therefore face my judgement."

The Caster's face settled into a mixture of awe and disbelief that Kotomine found was quite common among those encountering Gilgamesh for the first time.

"...You know, I'm used to people picking fights for the most inane of reasons; but even for me, that's a new one." she said.

"Silence, mongrel." Gilgamesh said. "Disappear from this world. Such is my judgement as king."

Gilgamesh raised one hand, and a disc of shimmering golden light appeared in the air. The glowing portal was a doorway to the treasury containing all of the legendary treasures that Gilgamesh had acquired during his rule. And because Gilgamesh was the first epic hero, the archetype upon which all other epic tales were based, every last treasure in the world could trace its origin back to his storehouse. This was the unbeatable Noble Phantasm that had allowed Gilgamesh to become the final surviving Servant of the previous Grail War: the Gate of Babylon.

A sword emerged from the gate: an ornate blade studded with shining emeralds. It hung in the air for a moment, then hurtled through the air towards the Caster like a missile. She threw up her hands in front of her: not out of surprise, but in order to release the magical energy that she had gathered within them.

"Bram Gush!"

The flying sword was a Noble Phantasm in its own right, the legendary weapon of some great hero of yore, and no quick defensive magecraft would have been able to stop it. The Caster had been more clever than that, however: instead of raising some shield that the gem-encrusted weapon would have pierced with ease, she had unleashed a blast of wind at the oncoming sword. The rush of turbulent air destabilized the projectile's path, and it embedded itself in the wall a short distance from the Caster's head.

"Do not think you can defy your fate so easily!" Gilgamesh said.

He spread his hands, and several more gateways opened behind his shoulders, a veritable arsenal of assorted weapons protruding from them. Kotomine could see the Caster immediately reassess her situation and decide against fighting it out.

"Dark Mist." she incanted.

A thick black fog began boiling from the air around her, concealing her from sight. At the same time, her presence faded from Kotomine's magic awareness. Kotomine recognized the effect as Presence Concealment — typically a class ability of Assassins, though if this Caster had made a regular habit of robbery then he supposed it made sense for her to possess it as a personal skill.

"You think you can skulk away under cover of darkness, rat?" Gilgamesh said.

He snapped his fingers, and an additional glowing gateway opened behind him. Rather than floating out point-first like a projectile, the weapon within displayed its hilt. Gilgamesh casually grabbed it and pulled out a sword with a rune-covered blade. As he held it aloft, it began shining with a blinding light. The black mist summoned by the sorceress could not resist the blade's divine glow and scattered, exposing her creeping along the wall towards a window. At the same time, Gilgamesh launched the weapons from the other gates in a great volley.

Kotomine could not help but laugh when he saw the result. The Caster had been saved by her small stature: she was unusually short and thin for a Servant. Gilgamesh had not bothered to aim with any care before unleashing his weapons, believing the onslaught to be too dense for her to avoid, but had not taken into account the billowing cloak she wore, which made her appear a larger target than she actually was. The Caster thus stood against the church wall silhouetted by embedded weapons, many of which had pierced her cape, but none of which had actually struck her. It was such a perfect sight that Kotomine might have assumed it an intentional taunt by Gilgamesh, or a weapon-deflecting defensive Noble Phantasm possessed by the Caster, if not for the twin looks of disbelief on both of their faces.

"You have remarkable luck, mongrel." Gilgamesh said. "But luck can only delay your fate for so long."

Though Kotomine would never offend the King of Heroes' ego by saying so, the Caster's survival owed as much to Gilgamesh's grandstanding as luck. As a former Executor, Kotomine strove to always eliminate his targets with maximum speed and efficiency. Gilgamesh, however, was so confident in his own superiority that he would give his enemies needless opportunities in order to allow himself to show off. Right now, for instance, Gilgamesh still held the shining sword of light. The sensible thing to do would be to immediately plunge it through the Caster's heart while her movement was restricted. But such a move wouldn't be sufficiently grandiose for the King of Heroes. Confident of victory, he wouldn't reuse a weapon that he'd already employed once, but instead bring out some particularly showy new treasure in order to deliver the coup de grace. And while he was doing so, of course, the Caster would have time to flip through her mental catalogue of spells for one that might turn the situation around. Kotomine had seen his otherwise undefeatable Servant blow fights this way before, and had no doubt he would shortly see it happen again. Gilgamesh was, unfortunately, his own worst enemy.

Sure enough, the golden king leisurely opened a new gate and drew out a massive spear. As soon as the tip had emerged into the air, it sparkled fiercely and then erupted into withering flames. As Gilgamesh held it aloft, for the Caster to gaze upon and contemplate her imminent immolation, she shouted another spell.

"Freeze Bullet!"

A sphere of icy magic flew through the air and collided with the blazing sphere, and the union of the two magics immediately caused a massive explosion of steam. Gilgamesh immediately launched the lance forwards, but the following dull thud told Kotomine that it had struck only the wall. Indeed, once the boiling cloud of steam thinned, they could see that the spear had struck the center of the cloak, but the Caster herself had slipped out of the much-pierced garment and vanished. Without its Servant nearby to provide it with prana, the tattered cloak disappeared in a puff of sparkling dust, leaving only the weapon-studded wall.

"Wretched girl." Gilgamesh said, making the weapons he had launched from Gate of Babylon dissolve to golden dust with a short, sharp gesture. "I will hunt her down and squeeze pain and humiliation from her body like wine in redress for this grievance."

"I do appreciate your restraint, Gilgamesh." Kotomine said. "Though it must have pained your pride to allow her to escape, unleashing the amount of force necessary to destroy her would probably have leveled this humble church."

"Honestly, Kirie, this is simply too much to bear." Gilgamesh said. "Thus far, I've followed your counsel and limited myself to gathering information, but this city has begun to overflow with far too many mongrels for my liking. I feel it is far past time that some of these ignorant scum be put to the sword."

"Then there is no need to strain yourself any long, Gilgamesh." Kotomine said. "With the appearance of so many other atypical Servants, the irregularity of your own existence will not cause the questions it would in a typical War. Covering up the existence of so many Servants who lack proper Masters to rein them in has become burdensome as of late, so I have no objection to you thinning the herd. Though if I may make but one request, I ask that you refrain from killing or otherwise eliminating Shirou Emiya."

"If you wish." Gilgamesh said. "I personally find nothing interesting about that mongrel; but if you believe some amusement may be found in him, I will not deny you the right to seek it. Though I must say that I question your judgement in revealing so much to him. He was probably never very inclined to trust you, but he now certainly views you as an enemy."

"It was always inevitable that Shirou Emiya would become my enemy if he lasted long enough to learn the truth of the Grail." Kotomine said. "I have now given him incentive to remain in the war and fight to the end, so that he may at last face me as his father once did. And then, perhaps, he will not disappoint me as Kiritsugu did, and I will have the comfort of knowing that I am not alone."

"If that is your desire, then go seek such happiness as you please." Gilgamesh said. "I will neither obstruct nor aid you. If you wish to foolishly get yourself killed before the Grail is complete, that is your decision to make."

"I wish to witness the birth of Angra Mainyu; to bless its entry into this world and to perform the baptism that cleanses it of Original Sin; to tell it that I do not think it evil, for being true to its nature. Though I know with certainty it will end my life without hesitation or regret, for its nature allows it to do nothing but destroy, that is one of the two ways I wouldn't mind dying." Kotomine said. "The other way I wouldn't mind dying... is at the hands of someone like myself, someone who can truly understand me, someone who knows what it means to be defective from birth. Someone who knows no joy save for being true to their innermost nature, no matter the cost. After discovering Kiritsugu was not that man, I began to despair that any such person existed in this world; but now Shirou Emiya has rekindled my hopes. So you need not be concerned on my behalf, Gilgamesh: either Shirou Emiya will grant me one of the ends which I desire, or I will prevail over him and the Grail will grant me the other."

"How unfortunate that you die either way." Gilgamesh said. "I've actually grown somewhat fond of you over the years, Kirie. Out of all the great overflowing masses of humanity in this age, you have proven a diamond amongst the mongrels. Your loss is sure to send me plunging into boredom once more."

"The whole world belongs to you, and the Holy Grail will become yours as well." Kotomine said. "Unleash the curse upon your garden to burn the wheat from the chaff. Likely only one in a million will survive, but they will be heroes forged in very flames of hell itself — worthy of being your subjects. I have no doubt you will find your second reign as King of Kings a most joyful one."