Satsuki slipped into the warehouse that housed one of their most crucial pieces in the war followed by her servant who remained silent besides the occasional scratching of his pen. This particular warehouse had been underutilised by the company in the wake of the Fuyuki fire and with Shirou's money they were able to rent the building on a five year contract. The structure consisted of worn out and rusted machinery and was covered in dust with no light sources. To the average visitor the warehouse would appear to be nothing more than another one of its derelict kin but to her it was the entrance to her final destination. Looking briefly around the room her eyes came to rest on a small two by two foot square hole in the ground that was full of water.
The water was dark and foreboding displaying no light in a way that played on mankind's fears of deep water and small spaces. It was also unfortunately the only way to access the location that she needed to go. Shirou and Sumire were the people who originally created the room and neither of them would have had any problem accessing the space unlike her. Fortunately she was not a Dead Apostle any more after the adjustment Shirou performed on her and she even had a slight affinity towards water, which Sumire theorized was due to Shirou performing the operation. Unfortunately even if she could hold her breath for a very long time and swim pretty well it went against whatever human instincts she had left to dive in.
After thirty seconds of mental preparation and a few deep breaths to psych herself up she took the plunge into the surprisingly warm water. As she travelled down the narrow waterway runes of blue lit up the sides providing scarce amounts of light that barely managed to illuminate the tunnel walls that transitioned from concrete to rock as she dove deeper.
After a short while the upcoming space was illuminated by a light that steadily grew brighter and Satsuki knew she was coming to the end of the tunnel. The light grew brighter and brighter until Satsuki stuck one of her hands forward and came up with only air. Pushing forward past the bubble that denoted the end of the waterway she fell down into the floor below gracefully angling her feet beneath her as she did so and ending up in a crouch in a large cave.
The surroundings were beautiful but irrelevant. Even as she walked past the large amount of pools containing clear water formed an aquifer she ignored them and pressed on towards her target. According to Sumire and Shirou the cave was there before and they simply stumbled upon it. At the end of the cave there was a mystic code of huge potential. A storage code that absorbed the souls of heroic spirits gathered them and refined them. Usually this took the form of a segmented pillar however that was not the current form that it took when Satsuki saw it.
The pillar was shattered into multiple pieces that lay cracked and warped on the ground. Gasping Satsuki stumbled forward picking up one of the pieces. There was still prana leaving it at a reasonably fast rate. That indicated that it was not broken too long ago.
The slow sounds of footsteps resounded in the cavern around her and Satsuki found herself jumping back and turning around to face the newcomer. She physically relaxed as her eyes fell upon her visitor. Her former master Sumire was there. She raised her hand to greet her and then froze. Sumire was decked out in a black full body wetsuit unlike her usual attire of a bikini. There was also no reason for her to be here in this cave since she had already declined the grail war. "No," thought Satsuki with a note of rising dread. "She never did say that she wasn't going to participate."
"Hey Sumire," Satsuki said keeping her voice neutral for now. "Did you see who destroyed our lesser grail?"
The water vampire just smiled at her and raised her one hand that displayed three command seals causing the younger woman to gulp and adopt a stance.
"Good instincts Satsu," Sumire said with that faint smile still on her face.
"Why?" she asked. "You know by doing this you're going up against all of us, Arcueid, Shirou and me. What could possibly cause you to abandon your friendships with all of us?"
"Relax Satsu," Sumire said still standing casually. "You're thinking too hard. I saw a chance to obtain something I wanted in this tournament. Don't see this as throwing our friendship away. Whatever will happen Satsuki," she said seriously. "I will always regard you as my friend."
"Where's your servant," Satsuki asked still off balance.
"Oh him," Sumire said contemplating. "You could say he ran into a problem… or nine."
Satsuki blinked in surprise, "Nine's here," she said.
"Yeah," the older vampire replied. "Apparently he followed you here. Seems he was worried about you. It's quite odd actually; usually he would stick by Shirou. I guess he must feel his master is well protected."
She shook her head and then raised a hand to block the punch that was thrown at her. Immediately she retaliated with a kick that caught the younger woman off guard and three punches at her chest which sent Satsuki tumbling back into the pool.
"Good Satsu," Sumire said to herself ignoring the materialised figure of Hans Christian Anderson. "Use your opponent's distraction against them. She then ducked down as a whip like kick soared over her head from her former apprentice who had teleported at her side. She spun and punched upwards. Her apprentice managed to redirect the blow and she teleported three steps backwards facing Sumire again.
Sumire stepped forward again walking towards her apprentice and then spun around landing an elbow at her teleporting opponent. Satsuki powered through the blow and launched a set of retaliatory blows each of them augmented by the power of her Reality Marble to leech Od when they land. Sumire caught the first two and then dodged the rest stepping back and out of her range. Sumire curled her fist at her hips causing Satsuki's eyes to widen. It was a tell that the Dead Apostle Ancestor had displayed during the years. Pulling out her dagger she managed to intercept her mentors left fist with the knife and matched her right hand with her left. Almost immediately despite Depletion Garden being focused on her left hand she felt damage from the localized storm cut deeply into the arm. However the knife in her right hand not only managed to block the use of Noble Phantasm but also leave a cut on the Water Demon's arm that lingered for a bit before it healed.
"Liking the gift Satsu," Sumire said.
"I would like it a bit more if its presenter wasn't trying to kill me," she bit back.
"Silly Satsu," Sumire said with a slight hint of mocking beneath her smile. "I wasn't trying to kill you. If I was you'd be dead. Here's a question for you," she continued. "Do you know the requirements for teleportation? Not Shirou's method, I mean yours and mine. Do you know what the hardest prerequisite to obtain for it is?"
At seeing Satsuki's blank face she continued. "It's simple in order to teleport the user must have some way to manipulate space and step out of Gaia's grasp. Theoretically Avalon could have been used as a basis to teleport before Shirou disposed of it. So how do both of us do it Satsu?"
"No," Satsuki said in denial as the thought went through her head. "The only way that would work out is if…" She looked in horror at Sumire who merely began to chant.
"I swim among Monsters
My blood is their water
Satsuki lunged at the Ancestor who nimbly dodged back out of her range. She threw a punch that was caught by Sumire and then she teleported behind her swing her knife which was deftly avoided.
My veins are their nests
My tears are their salt
Condensing her Reality Marble she tried using it to absorb Sumire's Od but the Ancestor moved sensing the abosrbtion field and she was forced to engage her again.
No longer in despair
I prepare unseen futures
Satsuki backed off and focused her power into her knife before stabbing it into the floor in front of her causing a wispy vision of a foggy garden to arise around her barely noticing as her servant retreated to behind her.
My body creates
This Infinite Ocean"
Sumire finished clapping her hands together and the world changed. Blinking her eyes Satsuki was astounded. She had activated her Reality Marble partially before but it had always been wispy and indistinct. Seeing Sumire's Reality Marble just showed her how much she had failed to utilise the potential.
She had heard people say that water stretched as far as the eye could see before, but she had never seen it done quite as literally as it was now. The ocean looked to be a standard ocean if a bit clearer than usual and fish swam around the small portion of garden that she stood on. The horizon in the distance was obscured by a wall of water that rose and replaced the sky leaving the young women surrounded by 360 degrees of seawater.
"Lovely isn't it," the voice came from in front of her and she refocused on her old mentor who was standing ankle deep in the middle of the ocean. "My last one was never as good as this," she continued. "I have you all to thank for that."
"So the world changes as the person changes," Anderson spoke up from behind Satsuki causing her to start. "Your mood or personality was changed upon meeting my master causing your Reality Marble to alter. You're making a subtle suggestion that she should re-examine her Reality Marble as she has changed from when she originally developed it."
A look of shock overtook Sumire's face, "Of course not. I am your opponent right now. My goal is to defeat you and kill your servant."
"Except you haven't been targeting me despite the fact that I'm a weak stationary target, your real objective is…"
Sumire clapped her hands cutting him off as the whole sea rippled. Sumire rose from the water as the thing she was standing on was revealed. While Satsuki was not a marine biologist she hung around with Shirou and Sumire a lot who both had interest in that subject and from what she could tell the creature that her opponent now stood upon had no place in the earth's evolutionary history.
It was massive. There was simply no other word for it. Just looking at it Satsuki was able to determine that it was well over thirty metres. It seemed to have a rough stone shell that covered its entire body except for a single glowing purple eye. The eye twitched taking in the entire world before focusing on Satsuki causing the younger girl to take an involuntary step backwards. The stone shifted revealing disguised holes from which long thin arms with three wicked barbed claws per arm sprung out.
The creature started to move using a dragging motion towards the remaining portion of depletion garden.
"Master," her servant spoke up from behind her. She turned to see him holding up a dagger that dripped blood. "Drip this blood on your feet." Satsuki opened her mouth to argue and then decided against it. She took the dagger and then dripped a drop of the blood on her feet. Immediately her feet were seized with an intense feeling of itchiness. Looking at them she noticed scales start to form over her legs. "You turned me into a mermaid," she yelled at her servant furiously.
"You can be angry at me afterwards Master," Anderson said. "Right now there is a very angry oyster bearing down on you."
Whipping her head back to the creature she was just in time to dodge one of its wicked barbs. She immediately turned and jumped into the ocean feeling the remnants of depletion garden fade away as she did so. Feeling the warm water invigorated her and she immediately felt the remnants of her legs fade away to be replaced by a tail. Shoals of brightly coloured yet utterly alien fish swam by, but she wasn't able to spare a moment to appreciate the variety of species before she was forced to dodge many of the grasping hands, idly noticing a fish or two be dragged down into the holes in the creature's carapace.
Avoiding the hands she swam directly towards the eye of the creature aiming for the one soft spot she could see. However that spot was instantly blocked off by an army of hands that seemed to multiply as they came towards her. One caught her and she struck it causing the hand to snap but also harming her own hand and giving the opportunity for other hands to reach grasp her. She teleported out of the hands feeling herself suddenly more overcome with more fatigue than usual.
"Her Reality Marble is supressing mine," she thought annoyed. "Teleportation is harder. Think what else do I have?" Almost unconsciously her eye drifted to her knife. "According to Sumire it focused the user's reality Marble allowing her to increase its effectiveness against Mana and Od. But that's not all that it could be used for," she thought a plan coming to mind. Once again she swum towards the eye and was confronted by the mass of hands. This time however she was prepared. She threw her knife in an upwards trajectory deliberately avoiding the eye of the creature and she was happy to see that the eye ignored it. She then spread her arms wide and allowed the arms to seize her. Unlike the fish that only required one arm, almost every single arm grasped onto her arms and tail. She winced as some of the claws went directly through her reinforcement and dug into her skin.
She noticed that the creature shifted a bit a large hole opening up in the front that revealed jagged rocks that Satsuki would bet were substitutions for teeth. She struggled pulling at the arms but more and more arms joined in to move her. Closer and closer to the mouth she came and she applied more and more strength until all the arms were restraining her. Then she teleported.
While Sumire's Reality Marble supressed other Reality Marble's the knife was created to focus the power of one so that it could be used despite any adverse effects. With her new found knowledge courtesy of Sumire Satsuki theorized that teleportation was also one of these effects.
Satsuki appeared a dozen metres away from the now unguarded eye in the same location as the knife she threw. She offhandedly noticed that the eye had widened focusing on her at close range forming by accident a remarkably human expression of surprise. Dashing forward using her powerful tail she entered the shell and jabbed in the knife at full speed. She felt hands grasp onto her tail seconds later but she ignored them in favour of further mutilating the eye. Suddenly she was grasped and flung away by one of the arms and she flew a good few metres out of the rocky body. She was immediately forced to dodge a wild swipe from the arms of the creature.
The arms were going berserk attacking every single thing around them, even each other. Satsuki watched in muted surprise as the hands started to break off of the shell revealing a short tail at the end of each of them and slowly swam away from the now lifeless husk. Unexpectedly she was carried upwards by a current and she found herself floating above the water.
"Wow, that was pretty good Satsu," the voice of her former teacher came from behind her and she turned to see her standing upon another monstrosity. This one was similarly huge but worm like with six crab-like arms branching out from its body. Its entire body was covered in glassy eyes that focused on her. "But it is called the Infinite Ocean not the Ocean Containing One Solitary opponent." As she spoke Satsuki felt the entire sea ripple but no other monsters arose. "Luckily for you its dawn," Sumire sighed. "It's far too hard for me to maintain my Reality Marble in the daylight hours," she snapped her fingers and the ocean faded away to be replaced by the darkness of the cave.
"I'll see you another night Satsuki," Sumire said as she turned around to head out.
"Wait," Satsuki said unable to stand due her current body problems. "What is your goal for the grail?"
Sumire entered a contemplating position. "Hmm, I would have to say that my goal is my legacy," she said before she teleported away from the cave.
"I wonder what Master will think of this outcome," the cultured voice of Nine resounded throughout the chamber.
"I can't imagine he will be too happy," Satsuki said.
"On the contrary I think he would be delighted to have a showdown with Sumire," Nine said. "I should inform him that she seems to be setting herself up as your opponent though. I'm sure Shirou has enough enemies anyway."
"How was your opponent," Satsuki asked Shirou's servant curiously.
"He appeared to be Sun Wukong," Nine said. "I believe that he was a bit too polite to be the illustrious Monkey King but I will admit my knowledge on literature is not of the highest standard. Incidentally Lady Yumizuka are you aware you have a tail."
"It's a really long story Nine," Satsuki said. "Excuse me while I beat some sense into a writer."
Author Note: Yup all writers deserve regular beatings. Sumire's Reality Marble was thematically inspired by Subnautica.
HawkWasp Yeah I'm well aware that it makes a story more cohesive as well as easier to get into if the chapters are consolidated. Unfortunately doing it that way would increase posting time and decrease the amount of feedback I get after every single chapter. Maybe when I get better and faster at writing I will look into it.
AznPuffyHair Yes One master servant combo hasn't been explicitly revealed although you can guess the Master by the description. Possible death flag... Maybe.
That thing about Alaya hating Magicians and Magicians being incredibly dangerous is canon. Actually Aoko is canonically responsible for the death of the universe some time in the future when she turns back time and when she does that Alaya actively attacks her.
Please Read and Review and provide feedback. Thanks in advance.