Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Ayame/Zero…NOT
Part VIII
Tongues of red and gold lapped and crackled through the air, and then with a whoosh of air rushing in to fill a vacuum, died down at gestures from a singed and battered Tokiomi. Steam hissed up from the scorched ground, embers glowing fitfully here and there. Zouken stood nearby, looking remarkably pristine, having simply…absorbed, the heat and force of the blasts and the subsequent inferno with no real or even superficial damage.
"Simple, but effective in its own way." Zouken mused. "Not nearly effective enough, though."
"Perhaps…" Tokiomi said with a cough. In truth, it was costing him quite an effort to preserve his usual façade of stoic control, and he had in fact consumed more than half his prana reserves. He'd have to take…appropriate, measures should he have to continue to fight, as he likely would.
"Here they come." Zouken said, eyes narrowed. "Be ready."
Tokiomi didn't say anything, merely giving a simple but forceful flourish of his cane to demonstrate his resolve. Smoke and steam shrouded both Tokiomi and Zouken alike, and then a figure loomed out of the fog, growing darker and larger as it approached at a run from the front.
No words were said, as both Tokiomi and Zouken launched a preemptive attack. A jet of flame hot enough to burn flesh down to the bone launched itself from the gem crowning Tokiomi's cane, aimed at the approaching figure, while streaks of dark-colored energy lanced from around Zouken and likewise launched themselves at the approaching figure.
The flames and the energy closed…and then the figure jumped up, avoiding the magi's attacks at the last minute. "Impressive, but…!" Tokiomi began, only to break off, wide-eyed, as he saw what was attacking him.
"What…?" Zouken likewise exclaimed, as an Einzbern homunculus arced down, their halberd already raised two-handed.
Both magi sprang away as the homunculus struck the ground with its halberd, the impact shaking the earth and blowing it away to leave a crater several meters deep and across. The force of the impact similarly displaced the surrounding air with a thunderous boom, and buffeted Tokiomi and Zouken alike as they opened the distance.
"Einzbern…?" Tokiomi gasped, his face showing incredulity at the seemingly-inexplicable betrayal. "Why?"
"They've been compromised?" Zouken snarled. "How? Einzbern homunculi are…!"
"Targets confirmed." The homunculus emotionlessly declared. "Commencing elimination."
At those words, more homunculi emerged from the fog, marching in step as they advanced in ordered lines, halberds held diagonally over their chests. Blood-red irises stared ahead as hard as gemstones, eerily-beautiful faces completely devoid of fear or doubt as they prepared to engage their former allies in battle.
Roaring in fury, Zouken counterattacked, seeming to explode into a flower of broken flesh from which emerged vast swarms of winged insects. Likewise, the ground around him erupted with worms, which immediately cocooned themselves and in seconds burst forth yet more winged insects.
The second rank of the phalanx facing Zouken raised their hands, palm outwards as the first rank knelt down. White light shimmered on their palms, and then lanced out as ravening beams of energy. As they approached the oncoming swarm, the beams broke and bent, transforming into a crisscrossing kaleidoscope of light that complete annihilated the swarm of Matou familiars.
As the swarm collapsed under the onslaught, the first rank leapt forward, halberds held at the ready. The second rank then pointed their hands at the ground, and fired. Again, the beams split, piercing the ground and winding surgically through the earth to track and kill each and every worm present therein.
The second and third ranks folded back, stepping into a circular formation as they fought Zouken under the ground. Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth ranks leapt forward as well, joining the fight against Zouken.
On the other side of the battlefield, Tokiomi swept his cane around him as a trio of homunculi leapt at him from three separate directions. "Erstveröffentlichung." He said, and the gem on his cane flashed a blinding red. A moment later and flames exploded around him with a thunderous roar, and engulfing the three attacking homunculi and simultaneously blowing them back.
Moments later and the flames died down, three badly-burned homunculi falling to the ground, weapons dropping from limp fingers. "You underestimate my power." Tokiomi said, addressing the remaining homunculi around him, gathered in trios. "Don't do that."
The homunculi didn't say anything. They simply stared at Tokiomi, and then without a word or shift in expression, another trio leapt forward, spreading out to attack from multiple directions at once. His usual smile returning, Tokiomi lifted his cane, its jewel flashing at a thought.
Zouken narrowly avoided getting hit by a homunculus' blade – not that it would have really hurt him – and lashing out with a claw-like hand, grabbed the homunculus by the neck. The artificial Human gave a gasp and for the first time showed an expression on his face, of mixed surprise, shock, and confusion. And then he visibly withered, aging and wrinkling up like a prune as Zouken literally sucked the life out of him. Moments later, and only a desiccated corpse was left, even its clothes crumbling into dust, said corpse following moments later as broken bone and dry flesh crumbled away at the lightest touch of the surrounding air.
A halberd stabbed through Zouken's chest from behind with a shower of gore, and then the halberd was crumbling away, impossibly rusting away even as Zouken seemed to melt in on himself, only to reform, only now facing the homunculus which had stabbed him. Stepping closer, uncaring of the weapon even now running him through but already crumbling away, Zouken showed his hand into the homunculus' face.
There was no gore, but the homunculus went limp, and then like his 'brother' began to wither away as Zouken consumed him.
A third homunculus attacked, striking down from above with a powerful swing that literally shattered Zouken's body and the ground beneath. But then the bloody remains of Zouken's body turned into a swarm of insects and jumping warms that threw themselves at the homunculus.
Moving faster than the Human eye could follow, the homunculus swept out with his weapon in a series of precisely-controlled swings. Gore splattered away as insects and worms alike were crushed by the dozen, but there were hundreds of the things, erupting up from the ground despite the efforts of the other homunculi to cleanse the earth of them.
They bit into the homunculus' clothes, chewed into his flesh, and dug into his body in search of nerves and internal organs. The homunculus staggered, blood pouring out of his mouth and countless wounds, and then collapsing began to convulse as the worms began to feast and mate, laying eggs which then hatched more worms which then joined in on the feasting and the mating. Within moments the homunculus' body was gone, leaving only a heaving mass of worms that merged together into a Human-like body.
With a weary-sounding sigh, Zouken stood up from the ground…and then narrowly-dodged a gleaming javelin flung his way. It flew past, striking deep into the ground several meters away.
"What poor aim." The vampire mocked the homunculus which had thrown it from a safe distance. "I expected better…Jubstacheit must be losing his touch."
The homunculus didn't care…but their mistress did. "So…what's the story?" Black and White asked. "How'd you guys know to bring conceptual weapons specifically tailored for use against Zouken and Tokiomi?"
"It was suspected that the facility going dark was due to betrayal by either Arch-Magus Zolgen or Magus Tohsaka." The homunculus replied. "Even if that was not ultimately the case, it was a prudent measure taken to ensure success in the event it was what had transpired upon investigation. I apologize if we caused offense, as we were unaware at the time that my lady had commandeered the Fuyuki Facility."
"Well…it's not completely wrong." Black and White replied. "I wouldn't be doing this if Tokiomi hadn't…betrayed, his family. Kind of…as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say, it's true from a certain point of view…"
Black and White trailed off with a mental snicker, as the homunculus lifted another javelin. Made from electrum around a core composed of a fist-sized sapphire inside a silver ring, the homunculus flourished the conceptual weapon – or rather one part of it – before stepping into a throwing stance. Taking aim, he threw…
…and again Zouken deftly avoided it with a smirk thrown the homunculus' way.
A halberd swung down, and Zouken caught it. Super-strong and super-dense metal alloy rusted and crumbled as Zouken stepped forward, literally melting around and swallowing the homunculus into his body.
The homunculus picked up another javelin, and stabbed it into the ground. "And that's checkmate." Black and White said.
Sapphires glowed and then lightning lashed out from the three javelins, striking at and transfixing Zouken. For the first time since the battle began, Zouken screamed in agony, and thrashed impotently, vainly struggling to get free.
The homunculus now picked up the spear that formed the final part of the conceptual weapon designated the Wave Force Canceler (Wellenkraft-Unterdrücker). Like all conceptual weapons, it imposed a concept on a target, and 'crushed' it with said concept. And just as the name implied, that concept was that of 'wave'.
It took advantage of the principle that when two waves with equal differences in individual amplitude met each other, the two waves would completely cancel each other out. The Wave Force Canceler was composed of two components. The first was a trio of javelins that functioned as nodes to isolate a target and find the frequency it existed on, in what modern science would describe as the portion of the vibrations of the quantum superstring that corresponded to its apparent existence.
The second part of the conceptual weapon was the generator for the wave to be imposed on the target, and thus 'cancel' it out. Similar to the javelins, the spear that made up the second part of the conceptual weapon was made of electrum, and with a fist-sized core of sapphire.
Unlike the javelins though, the spear's sapphire didn't have one ring of silver around it, but two, one rotating horizontally and the other vertically. The homunculus watched as they rotated faster and faster, the sapphire glowing brighter and brighter until the rings abruptly stopped, the sapphire in the spear glowing blinding bright.
The weapon was ready.
Taking a stance, the homunculus aimed the spear at Zouken's thrashing figure, and then charged forward. Quickly crossing the intervening ground, the homunculus stabbed the spear into Zouken's chest, and piercing what passed for his heart. The crackling bolts of lightning that sheathed his body seemed to go into a frenzy, and Zouken screamed with utter terror and agony, eyes bulging out of his sockets.
All across the battlefield and beneath the earth, not just here but across the city and in Zouken's other properties across Japan, worms, insects, and other Matou familiars simply ballooned and then exploded in showers of gore. Zouken's puppets fared no better either.
In a Tokyo corporate skyscraper, an obese and bald CEO who had been discussing financial matters in a meeting of top executives simply went into convulsions, as did his equally-obese and bald son sitting to his right. The other executives made to rush to their aid, only to halt in horror and incomprehension as their superiors' bodies ballooned and then exploded in showers of gore.
In a high school classroom in Fukuoka, a fat student went into convulsions in the middle of exams. A moment later and his body ballooned and then exploded in a shower of gore.
Across Japan, molesters of all ages suddenly went into convulsions and died in horrific ways that painted the insides of train cars, stations, terminals, and other public spaces with the colors of Human blood and offal. Random people on the street which Zouken had turned into puppets for one reason or another died the same way, as did those he had appointed to watch over other, spiritually-valuable land he held the deeds for across Japan.
Mysteries erected by Zouken, either in person or otherwise, collapsed in showers of sparks and clouds of released mana. Zouken himself stopped screaming, as his body was literally charred and transmuted into graphite-like carbon composite, burning light shining out through cracks and what had once been his eyes and mouth, before finally, every trace of his existence ceased to be in a massive explosion that sent homunculi and their conceptual weapons flying.
But as debris rained down and the dust began to clear, the homunculi rose, one of them still clutching the smoking spear that had wiped Zouken from existence, at least in this timeline.
"Oh yeah!" Black and White cheered. "PERFECT FATALITY! Nice work, friends!"
The homunculus managed a smile. "We are honored to be of service, my lady." He thought.
A/N
Someone once complained that I made Zouken too weak in his fight with Ayame. I would say that at the time he was holding back – not realizing until it was too late that with Ayame he really should have gone all out before she could start throwing fairy hax around – but this time…
…he's not holding back. Remember that Einzbern combat homunculi have abilities on par with B-Rank Servants (not including Noble Phantasms), and Zouken was pawning them with no real difficulty. At least until the Einzbern decided to bring a conceptual weapon to bear, and goodbye and good riddance.
Next chapter, Tokiomi gets the beating of his life.