Day 6: False Assassin — A Rotting Soul
False Assassin sat in a dark room with her Master, Zouken Matou. The room had been employed as a storeroom by the monks of Ryuudou Temple until Zouken had claimed it as his new hideout, placing a bounded field around the small shed that made it impossible for any normal human to enter, notice, or even remember the shed's existence. The shed's former contents had been relocated outside; mental interference from the barrier meant that the monks would not question where the supplies had come from or where they used to be stored. It had been necessary to remove the supply room's former contents in order to make room for its new storage: corpses. Her master had ordered her to abduct humans whose absence wouldn't be missed, destitute homeless and vagrants, and bring them back to the shed unconscious but alive.
False Assassin hadn't been comfortable with the orders. Part of her pitied these unfortunate souls for the fate that Zouken surely intended them to suffer, and insubordinately mused that the most moral course of action would be to kill Zouken himself. But another part of her was unhappy for a different reason – she longer to kill instead of merely capture, to forget moral trifles like innocence and decency and set about sating the gnawing emptiness within her by spilling rivers of blood.
Ultimately, the two desires negated each other, and left her as she always was: empty, bereft of passion or purpose. She ended up following Zouken's orders because it was the most expedient path; he was not likely to tolerate any disobedience following the debacle in which what he perceived as hesitation on her part had resulted in him using one of his three Command Spells. She was vaguely aware that she should have felt shame about serving such a monster; but in the empty, broken depths of her soul, she felt nothing at all.
After False Assassin had brought the victims to the shed, Zouken had infested them with his Crest Worms, which immediately set about to devouring their prana. Zouken usually tried to make his victims last as long as possible, rendering them comatose and then continually draining life from their withered husks for months until they finally perished; but on this occasion, he was in a hurry. The Crest Worms feasted without restraint, and the victims were dead within minutes.
Having gorged themselves with prana, the Crest Worms then flowed across the ground into Zouken's body. The ancient magus looked hardly in better condition than the corpses: his skin was peeling off in numerous spots, revealing the worm-riddled tissue beneath, and one of his eyes had fallen out. A mass of Crest Worms writhed within the socket like bloated maggots, and the sight was enough to repulse even False Assassin. As the new Crest Worms burrowed into his body, delivering their loads of freshly-stolen life energy, Zouken's appearance began repairing itself. Seeing it in its decayed state, however, was not something False Assassin was likely to forget.
"Curse this weak flesh!" Zouken spat. "Centuries ago, I could reshape the body I wore to bear the image of myself in the prime of life: strong and virile, with toned muscle and a full head of hair. These days, it's a struggle to keep it looking like anything that isn't several days dead and decomposing. A bent, withered husk of man is the best I can manage, and even that form now more often than not shows signs of rot. Do you understand why that is, Assassin?"
False Assassin didn't particularly care to contemplate the matter, so she merely shrugged.
"I can steal as much new flesh as I want, but no sooner do I begin wearing it than it decays." Zouken said. "It is from the weight of my soul. I may infest a new body, one which has spent not twenty years on this Earth; but my soul carries the full weight of all five hundred years of my existence, and imposes that burden upon my body. My methods have greatly extended my life, but they have at last reached their limits. If I am to continue extending my life, I will require True Magic: a miracle from the Holy Grail, Heaven's Feel! Make no mistake, False Assassin: you will win me that which I desire. For my sake, you will triumph in this Holy Grail War!"
"What is the reasoning behind our new base of operations?" False Assassin asked.
"The Avenger, embodiment of the True Grail's corruption, is establishing itself in a cavern beneath this mountain – the location of the great magical formula which were first used to create the foundation of Holy Grail War. It is the most ideal location for performing the ritual to call down the Great Grail. We must position ourselves nearby and remain watchful – if they become ready to wish upon the corrupted Grail before the untainted Grail has finished being prepared, it will be necessary to intervene so as to preserve the ritual. Likewise, we must watch to ensure that they corrupted Servants have no contact with Ilyasviel von Einzbern, lest they taint the Grail Vessel within her before it can be filled and used to invoke the pure Great Grail at a safe location."
"Would it not expedite matters for me to eliminate True Berserker Heracles and abduct Ilyasviel right now?" False Assassin asked. "It is well within my abilities; Berserker's body may be protected by his Noble Phantasm, God Hand, but it cannot defend him against a conceptual attack against the point embodying the actualization of his death."
"I have no doubt you could defeat Berserker easily; but he is not the most troublesome opponent in this War." Zouken said. "The alliance between the Emiya and Tohsaka children grants them a total of four Servants protecting them; and because of the incident at the house, they are aware to be on guard against you. Your strength lies in executing a single unexpected and instantly fatal strike; you would not be able to prevail in a four-on-one fight. Heracles, on the other hand, has the raw power necessary to overwhelm multiple opponents at once; the fact that the children are splitting their prana between multiple Servants means that no individual one will have sufficient strength to overcome God Hand's defense. Therefore, we will wait for Ilyasviel to eliminate Emiya and Tohsaka for us; and only then will we move against Ilyasviel."
False Assassin nodded her acceptance of Zouken's decision. She had no grounds for questioning his assessment of the situation: she had no talent in strategy or tactics, only in killing. Zouken, veteran of four previous Holy Grail Wars, surely knew best – though some spiteful part of her mind couldn't help but note that he hadn't actually managed to win any of those Wars.
"We must also be wary of the schemes of the Overseer, Kirie Kotomine." Zouken said. "He may be nothing more than a twisted and wretched fool, whose defective soul has given him a misguided sympathy towards Angra Mainyu, but he has the potential to be dangerous – and he has been gathering pawns, likely to make a play for the corrupted Grail."
"I observed the golden Servant, Gilgamesh, using my Presence Concealment ability." False Assassin said. "He is indeed formidable. If Kotomine indeed commands his loyalty, then he must be considered a serious contender in the War."
"Oh, Gilgamesh is not likely to be problem." Zouken said. "He may wield the most powerful Noble Phantasms in the world, but his overconfidence is an obvious and crippling flaw. Using only second and third-rate weapons because he believes his opponents unworthy of his full effort, half the time not even deigning to don his armor when going into battle... he treats the War like a game. His arrogance will assuredly be his downfall. Use your spiritual hand against him, and let him laugh in derision at the weakness of your Noble Phantasm – then strike him at the point of his death. He is so enamored with the majesty of his Noble Phantasms, so confident in his invulnerability, that he won't see your insignificant little non-magical knife as a threat until his life is crumbling away. In the meantime, he is unlikely to exert any serious effort towards eliminating us, regarding us as too far beneath him for him to take us seriously as opponents; mere vermin that it would be beneath his dignity to waste his time upon. No, Gilgamesh may seem imposing, but he is not the one we need to be concerned about. Kotomine's other pawn, however, is a more cunning one. That woman Bazett Fraga McRemitz may have everyone else fooled, but I know what she's really up to. Do you recall, Assassin, the night of your summoning, when you dispatched the Servant True Lancer?"
Of course Shiki remembered. That fight was when she'd been forced to fully confront the emptiness within her. Immediately after being summoned, she had killed True Caster and her Master; but only in self-defense, only because they'd attacked her with lethal intent in those first, confused moments after she'd materialized. By the time True Lancer had appeared, she'd had time to come to terms with her surroundings. Time for her to be overcome sense of internal wrongness, her feeling of a hollowness that could only be filled by bloodshed. She'd known when True Lancer arrived that it was meaningless to fight him, unnecessary to kill him; and yet she'd felt a twisted bloodlust driving her to slay the hero before her. The warring instincts within her when he'd been disarmed and attempting to retreat: her sense of human decency versus the terrible desire to destroy everything. Then the decision she'd made, and the spray of his blood across her face.
"Of course you do." Zouken said. "I spoke to you through my worms and invited you to enter into a contract with me. But I also planted a number of my worms around the area to serve as lookouts. You might have taken care of True Lancer; but when eliminating a Servant, it is always best to take out the Master as well so that they don't have a chance to make another contract. Imagine my surprise when Bazett came onto the scene. I watched her enter her little pact with Emiya and Tohsaka, of course – but of greater import is what she did before their arrival. She made a phone call, and my little familiars allowed me to listen in. And who else did she speak to but Kirie Kotomine!"
"It would be appropriate to contact the Overseer and inform him she was dropping out of the War." False Assassin said. "But I take it that isn't what she actually said?"
"Of course not." Zouken said. "A combat mage of Bazett's caliber doesn't give up so easily. She knew that without a Servant, she no longer had any chance of winning the War fairly; but Kotomine was prepared to offer her a way to take the Grail by treachery. I take it that it was an offer he had made before, and she had initially declined; but now, with her back up against the wall, she was able to swallow her pride and make a deal with the devil."
"What are the terms of their arrangement?" False Assassin asked.
"I do not know the specifics." Zouken said. "Kotomine instructed her to come to his church at the first opportunity and speak with him personally; and despite my best efforts, my familiars have been unable to infiltrate it. I do not think his own magecraft is capable of establishing such a perfectly impermeable defense, so unfortunately it seems he was clever enough to ask Gilgamesh to deploy some Noble Phantasm which provides defense against espionage."
False Assassin frowned. Based on her observations, she'd thought Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm only comprised an endless arsenal of weapons. That was an intimidating enough power on its own, and now it seemed that he could also conjure defensive and supporting items. She wondered if eliminating Gilgamesh would really be as simple of a matter as Zouken seemed to believe. Though, the fact that she hadn't seen him deploy any such Noble Phantasms while hunting other Servants did seems to support the idea that he was overconfident. Perhaps he limited use of his non-combat Noble Phantasms to defense of his Master, considering himself so superior to his opposition as to not need any such protective items for himself.
"Based on Bazett's current circumstances and Kotomine's twisted personality, however, it is fairly easy to guess what they're up to." Zouken continued. "Bazett is staying at Emiya's house, offering him aid and pretending to be his ally; but is preparing to betray him, and only awaits Kotomine's order to strike. Kotomine, no doubt, wishes to draw out the charade for as long as he can, so he can take the most pleasure in the ultimate betrayal. Orchestrating such treachery is his only joy in life, and he will try to savor it as much as possible."
So Kotomine was someone like her; someone broken inside, who could not find ordinary pleasure. But while she continued to struggle with her feelings of emptiness and homicidal urges, Kotomine had embraced his inner nature. He was what she could potentially become, if she shed her last vestiges of conscience and embraced the void. False Assassin had not previously particularly cared about the dispute between Zouken and Kotomine, but she now found she hated the Overseer; hated him for being what part of her feared to become and what part of her desired above all else. He was the type of monster she could kill without hesitation or remorse.
"But however long he decides to prolong the pleasure, the outcome is inevitable." Zouken said. "The Sabers and Archers will eventually be confronted by a powerful opponent which requires all their attention: most probably the Einzbern doll's Heracles. And while they are occupied with the fight, Bazett will take advantage of their distraction to kill Emiya and Tohsaka. But when she does, you will be in the shadows behind her, your own knife in hand."
The withered old man cackled. In a way, False Assassin thought, he was even worse than Kotomine: Kotomine had been born broken, without any choice in the matter; but Zouken had willingly and deliberately remade himself into an abomination in his pursuit for power. He might consider Kotomine a twisted creature who took solace only in suffering, but he himself was now just as assuredly without heart or humanity as Kotomine.
False Assassin looked at the worm-eaten corpses littering the floor around her. If she was a true hero, she would have turned on the monster, the worm who wore a human skin. But that part of her was missing, lost to her faulty summoning; she could find only apathy in the parts of her soul which should have resounded with righteous fury. She was but half a person, and she could not find it in herself to try any longer to maintain a sense of morality.
It seemed that she, too, was destined to become a monster.
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