Day 6: True Rider — The Cursed Chains Of God
True Rider Medusa walked down a tunnel into the depths of Mt. Enzou, drawn along by the chain which False Avenger had embedded in her heart. The passageway was winding and frequently so narrow that they were forced to progress in single file. Medusa was in the rear, with Sakura in front of her, then Avenger, and in the lead was the newest addition to their group: the False Berserker called Scar.
Medusa had earlier that very day taken catastrophic damage during her battle against three other Servants within the Bloodfort Andromeda barrier she'd raised over Homurahara high school. If her Master had still been Shinji at that time, she undoubtably would have perished from such injuries: though they had missed the vital points of her head and her heart, the damage was so extensive that recovering would consume all of her prana and cause her to disappear. Even had she been the Servant of a highly competent magus like Bazett Fraga McRemitz was – so far as Medusa could judge from their brief meeting when Shinji ineffectually proposed an alliance – the sheer burden the need for so much prana would impose on her Master meant that, though she might have recovered, it would have been unlikely she'd ever regain the strength to use another Noble Phantasm for the rest of the War. But when one's Master was a god... a river of dark and toxic prana had flowed down the chain connecting them, pouring into Medusa as fast as she could absorb it. Already her eviscerated organs and severed limbs had regenerated; it would not be very long at all until she entirely was back at full strength.
The devastating injuries that Medusa had suffered had another, unexpected perk. As the endless stream of wicked curses that flowed into her through the chain had been redirected away from her soul so that the energy could be used to repair her body, she felt her mind clear slightly. She was still his Servant and his slave, but she could think about him in ways his curse had prevented. She was capable of visualizing him as he really was: not an all-powerful God blessing her with salvation, but a dark and twisted Avenger who sought to corrupt her mind and body. She was not actually capable of acting against him, not with her physical form so saturated with his dominating energy; but she used her mental freedom to meditate on the idea of disobedience. She tried to carve it into her mind, ingrain it so deeply in her psyche that it would not simply be washed away the next time the False Avenger's foul power flooded her. It was such a small act of defiance, but it was all she was capable of.
If False Avenger was aware that his control of Medusa had weakened slightly, he didn't show it. Nor was he at all upset that the attack on the school had failed. It seemed he had only ever intended it as a test. How strong were the two Servants he had detected entering the bounded field? Would any other Servants show up to aid civilians in danger? How would the Overseer react to a deliberate violation of the rules?
The False Saber and False Archer he judged to be mediocre; they had ultimately prevailed, but it had been a struggle for them even though Medusa had fought using only one of her three Noble Phantasms. He might yet decide to chain them, but they would not be considered priority targets like True Berserker Heracles or the golden Servant who had been hunting False Berserker Scar. The Overseer, False Avenger had dismissed as irrelevant; he was clearly a mere figurehead who lacked the strength or will to intervene even when the allegedly sacrosanct rules of the Grail War were openly flouted. But the one upon whom False Avenger heaped the most scorn was his counterpart, the True Avenger who had corrupted this world's Grail. True Avenger was the one Servant that False Avenger had feared might be his equal. But not only were his parameters were as pathetically low as False Avenger's, he lacked a connection to his Great Grail. It was only because of False Avenger was able to draw upon the limitless power of his version of the Great Grail that he was able to manifest cursed chains, dominate the souls of those whose hearts he pierced, and support them as a team of Servants to which he was Master. Lacking the ability to draw upon his own Great Grail's power, the True Avenger was pathetic. He wasn't even interested in enslaving his counterpart, he told Medusa and Scar; should they encounter the True Avenger again, they were to just finish him off.
He did not at any point seek their advice or ask for their opinions on the matter. He simply monologued incessantly at them; even the Berserker, who Medusa could not imagine was capable of understanding a fraction of his words. It seemed he simply craved their attention; for them to kneel in his presence, and listen attentively to his words, and favor him with respectful nods and occasional words of praise. It spoke a lot to his personality, this Avenger who desired to be God.
Ahead, the narrow path finally widened as it opened into a massive cavern. It was in absolute darkness, save for the smoldering red light which occasionally pulsed from the Avenger's chains, but Medusa was adroit at sensing her surroundings without the use of her eyes, which were usually sealed behind her face mask Breaker Gorgon in any case. She could feel not only the contours of the enormous space, but also the currents and eddies of spiritual energy that filled the air. The cavern was filled with a dense accumulation of potent energy; far, far more than could be accounted for even by the convergence of leylines beneath the mountain. The reason for this abnormal concentration of magic was clear: a series of massive seals and sigils, over a hundred meters in diameter, carved into the rock of the cavern floor. It was the formula for the summoning of the Great Grail: the engine of the massive ritual which called down the Cup of Heaven and manifested the Servants.
"Heaven's Feel." Avenger said. "Here, foolish mages sought to achieve the Third True Magic and attain immortality. Instead of treasuring the one life they had been given, they thought to make themselves eternal. They did not see that to achieve their ends would bring about not a miracle, but a curse: that immorality is nothing but a shackle which renders one forever a slave. It is a mistake that even a god could make... It is probably for the best that their dream will end without ever having been realized. But the ritual cannot end until the Great Grail has birthed the poisonous curses which have been incubating within it. This is the most suitable location for the Grail to be called... and this dark, bleak realm will make the most fitting kingdom for me. When the two Grails overflow and the world above is consumed by their cursed flames, you will survive down here with me as my chosen ones: a happy family, unchanging, forever."
Avenger separated from the group and walked to the edge of the engraved formula. He shook one of the sleeves of his kimono, causing several spear-tipped chains to slide out, and then set about embedding them in the ground along the edge of the inscription. Medusa took advantage of his distraction to walk over to where Sakura was standing. Though they were both now slaves of Avenger, they had hardly had a chance to be in each others' presence at all since being chained; in fact, Avenger seemed to deliberately keep his servants apart from one another whenever possible.
Sakura looked terrible. From the point where the chain was embedded in her chest, darkness spread across her skin like an ink stain. Where her skin was discolored, her veins occasionally pulsed with red light as Avenger's curses burned through them. But even so, Medusa could tell that the girl who should have been her Master hadn't fallen completely under Avenger's sway. Her body might be corrupted by Avenger's curses and her mind twisted into subservient obedience, but there was still some small, uncorrupted corner of her soul which shone with a defiance that she could not express. Avenger claimed that his curse controlled the even the souls of those he chained, but he was wrong; he used his power to force them to submit to his will, but even his overwhelming darkness could not entirely blot out the true inner light of chose he chained. Sakura might stand slouched in the darkness, as though she had lost all hope and was now content to obey her new Master, but Medusa could see that the corners of her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She might act like an emotionless puppet; but in the depths of her heart, Sakura was still crying out to be saved from this fate. Medusa only wished she could act on Sakura's desire and save her; but the chain in her heart was an irremovable shackle tying her to the False Avenger.
Something around Sakura's neck caught Medusa's attention: a necklace that she had not noticed before. It was a small crystal dagger, hanging from a string like a pendant. Though far too small to be of any practical use, the dagger had a trace of magic about it; not anything as powerful as a Noble Phantasm, but nonetheless conveying the impression that it originated from a Servant rather than merely human magecraft. After a few moments, Medusa realized why she was getting that impression: the dagger's energy reminded her of the False Rider she had briefly battled. Medusa hadn't know that Sakura had made any contact with False Rider, but apparently the Servant had met her long enough to pass over this trinket.
The dagger might not be powerful, but it was unusual. Under normal circumstances, when a Servant was defeated and disappeared, all of its possessions would vanish with it. From the False Avenger's comments about the remaining Servants he intended to enslave or defeat, the False Rider had perished from prana deprivation not long after her confrontation with Medusa; and yet this item of hers still lingered. It was possible that, when she transferred ownership of the item to Sakura, she had transferred the prana burden of maintaining it as well, but one fact argued against that: though Sakura's body was now drenched in the corrupting energy of False Avenger, the dagger showed none of the signs of darkening that her body did. If it was drawing on False Avenger's poisonous prana, there would surely be some physical trace. Improbable as it was, it seemed that the dagger had achieved full physical manifestation: despite having originated in an entirely different world, it was now sufficiently integrated into the current world such that it no longer required prana to prevent the Counter Force from erasing it as a paradox.
A Servant lingering in the world was said to be possible through True Magic such as, for instance, making a wish upon the Holy Grail; but Medusa couldn't see anyone going through such effort for as minor a trinket as this. More likely, it was some quirk of the item's own inherent magic; for instance, if it had an enchantment such as "continues to exist even after the owner is killed", then in summoning it the Grail would also grant it the power to persist after the summoning had ended. Though probably the actual enchantment was something more general, as there would be no reason to create an item with the sole property that it would become permanent if it happened to be summoned in the course of a Holy Grail War.
As Medusa probed the crystal dagger with her magical senses, images filled her mind: False Rider requesting Sakura form a contract with her, Sakura refusing, False Rider handing over the pendant as a gift... Rider withdrew her senses, and the images faded. Perhaps the dagger's nature was "something to be given as a gift". In order to be a true gift, it had to become wholly the property of the new owner, losing all connection to the one who had given it.
Whatever the nature of the dagger's magic, it was captivatingly beautiful. It was the only light in the darkened cavern, the only spark of unpolluted energy shining amid the overwhelming miasma of poisonous energy swirling around Avenger. Medusa found herself unconsciously reaching towards the necklace, drawn by that pure and untainted light.
"What are you doing?" Avenger snapped.
Medusa started guiltily and slid away from Sakura, but it was too late; Avenger was stalked towards them, his face twisted in a grimace of displeasure. Medusa feared that he had noticed the dagger necklace, that he would destroy it – and she had no doubt he would destroy it if he noticed that it was not corrupted, as he destroyed anything he could not control – but realized that he was instead glaring back and forth between Medusa and Sakura.
"You think you can talk behind my back?" Avenger hissed. "Try to plot against me, perhaps? Are you trying to be the snake in my garden, Medusa? Trying to break up my little family?"
"No, my Master." Medusa said.
"Liar!" Avenger yelled.
He slapped Medusa across the face. The blow was pathetically weak for a Servant, and Medusa barely registered the impact. At the same time, however, the chain embedded in her heart released a stabbing burst of cursed energy into her body, and Medusa collapsed from the pain.
"You're only pretending to be subservient." Avenger ranted. "Even with your heart pierced by my chain, even with your body stained by my curse, your soul still refuses to accept me. You think you can abandon me, run away back to the world of light while leaving me here in the darkness alone. Empty your head of such stupid notions! You belong to me now, body and soul. This chain is our eternal bond, and you will never, ever break it!"
Avenger ran his hand over the chains connecting to Medusa and Sakura, and the pulse of curses flowing down them increased. Medusa felt dark power seize control of her body, pulling her to her feet like a marionette and then making her bow deeply to Avenger. The darkness began eating at her mind as well, once more clouding her thoughts with despair. Avenger seemed to loom over her; no longer frail and sickly, but shrouded in seething shadows and overflowing with dark power. His anger was no longer the temper tantrum of a petty tyrant, but the terrible and fathomless rage of a wrathful god. Medusa was a fool to have ever imagined that she could oppose him, oppose God. His power was absolute, and those he claimed as his own were beyond any other salvation.
"These chains are our bond." God repeated, this time more calmly. "You are bound not to each other, but only to me. This dark cavern is your entire world, and I am your only light. You must live only for me, give your love only to me. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Medusa and Sakura spoke in monotone unison.
"Good." God said. "Now, let us begin the preparations to invoke the Great Grail. Here we will hold our banquet, and revel while the world above burns."
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