The quiet streets of Fuyuki disappeared in an instant as an immense surge of heat burst through the streets and the air spontaneously combusted melting the roads to slag. Black thunderclouds formed above the beleaguered city clotting the air and blocking out the light from the moon and stars before they disgorged streams of water upon the scorched earth. The earth trembled and cracked forming massive fissures that toppled buildings and sank entire blocks as the sound of massive footsteps rang throughout the night. Lastly as if to overshadow all the prior proceedings a mountain arose in the middle of the centre of the city before the shadow emulated the form of a simply colossal bull, barely visible through the thick steam that arose from when the water from the heavens met the fire from the earth.
The fog didn't last for long as the next second a literal wall of noise blasted through the city swiftly levelling the remaining structures only to be stopped by a wall of white as soon as it crossed the Mion. However the shield was only able to protect the Shinto district. Under the power of that almighty cry the seas evaporated the land was reduced to dust and ash and even the weeping clouds were slowly pushed away. The creature that stood unveiled from its previous cover and framed across the backdrop of the ruins of Fuyuki didn't look like a creature of the Earth. With a bone white face with blue horns and glowing gold body, it dwarfed the mountain on which Ryuudou temple stood. Its entire body crackled with electricity and was accompanied by an eldritch glow that spoke of an inherent divinity of which a modern human could not begin to understand. A single glance was enough to announce to the world that a God had descended upon the earth as it lit up the night plunging Fuyuki City into the light of day.
Shirou grimaced as he stood on the golden back of the creature as his hand burned with the final command seal. At the last moment before summoning he had commanded Ishtar to control Gugalanna and the servant still stood next to him fighting to keep control over the raging force of nature. At this moment he was immensely glad he did. Despite his preparations and his collaboration with the exorcists he had no illusions that one hundred percent of the inhabitants of Miyama were evacuated. The Beasts very summoning had killed those he desired to protect and he felt blood run down his hands as his nails penetrated the skin and he deliberately uncurled his fists.
The rainstorm caused wetness to roll down his face and Shirou cursed his Kiritsugu thoughts that forced him to do this but there would be no better time to get rid of the trio. He had lost, they had won and completed the Aylesbury ritual and unleashed the Dark Six, the seed of power that lay dormant within each Dead Apostle but in winning they had handed him an opportunity. A tremendous amount of prana released by the completed ritual, a servant with the ability to summon a being of such power that he needed a colossal amount of prana to do so, a target to unleash it upon and the time and manpower to create a battlefield on which to unleash it. As well as one last trick up his sleeve, he thought as he let out a half-hearted grin.
Still he couldn't afford to dawdle. To summon the Bull of Heaven was a sin. The creature had most likely already disrupted weather patterns for the next few years and Shirou had no desire for a pyrrhic victory. Lifting up a hand he pointed at his chosen target.
"Get them," he instructed the Beast through Ishtar.
xxx
Arcueid gritted her teeth as she channelled the power of her Marble Phantasm rejecting the hell around her. Behind her stood Satsuki, Aoko and Heracles, each of them stood in her bubble of protection from the fiery streets of Fuyuki. She squinted, trying to see through the blisteringly hot vapour and then her eyes widened as she beheld the form of the Beast in front of her. Its golden skin was bright enough that it was like staring into the sun and she was forced to blink at the unexpected light.
"Oh wow," she said trying to find words when there were no words sufficient. "Oh wow, the property prices in Fuyuki are going to decrease." She paused a bit and then tapped her head. "Wait, that's not the problem now." Shirou had announced his intention to kill all three and it was her job as his friend, lover and teammate to back him up in his reckless decisions.
Still what should she do? There were three targets and while they were empowered by the ritual the weight of numbers was still on their side. She had already tangled with Primate Murder a few times during the nights but she had not been able to gain a conclusive advantage and while she felt that she could go a bit further now that the weight of the bloodlust had been lifted from her she had still only glimpsed the bottom of the Beast of Gaia's power.
An explosion of sound impacted throughout Fuyuki and Arcueid had less than a second to create a vacuum that diverted the deadly waves. The wave of sound cleared the fog and Arcueid whistled as she caught sight of the Divine Beast. Yup that's going on the satellites. Well done Shirou, you just probably gave away the existence of the moonlight world. Well, a bit more than the vampires already did at least.
"I guess we'll worry about it tomorrow," Arcueid said to herself as she focused once more on the problems in front of her. The three large problems that she still had no clue how to deal with. She didn't have much time to worry as Gugalanna moved at a speed that belayed its great size, thrusting forward with its hood towards the spot that Altrouge stood. Golden light illuminated the area as the hoof impacted kicking up dust that briefly blocked vision of the fight.
There was no period of hope, for in the same second a blast of white light, distinctly visible through the golden illumination blasted through the air striking the golden bull on the face and causing it to jerk backwards slightly. That simple involuntary movement caused an earthquake to tear through the surrounding area and Arcueid had to focus to negate the tremors. Stepping out from the dust and smoke was a nightmare. At half the size of Gugalanna it was also a creature that could be called mountainous.
Primate Murder had shed its blood and flesh entirely, becoming a hulking mass of bone. But the bones didn't follow that of any endoskeleton in nature. An enclosed ribcage and stomach gave it an armoured appearance as well as dozens of long bones making up each arm and leg gave it an otherworldly nature. It stood not as a wolf, but instead crouched, almost manlike in its motions and the fact that its paws had been replaced by what seemed to be overlarge human hands did not make it look any more child friendly. Clutched in one of its hands was Altrouge Bruenstud and Arcueid realised that the beast must have saved its master.
Another ground shaking roar and the Bull of Heaven charged forward with head down and horns aimed and collided with the Beast of Gaia creating a shockwave as it pushed the newly grown Primate Murder back. The beast retaliated instantly with its free hand, relentlessly swiping at the bull and scoring a few hits causing golden droplets of blood to rain down upon the battered city. The superficial wounds didn't slow the beast down and the bull flung carried the the wolf and its master out of sight.
"Are they having a kaiju fight in the middle of Fuyuki?" Satsuki asked, her tone slightly disbelieving.
"It appears so," Aoko said. "Or at least what's left of Fuyuki. At least maybe people will stop complaining when I cause so much destruction." She let out a brief laugh and then stopped. "That's not funny," she said shaking her head. "Thousands must have died." She looked like she was about to throw up right there and then.
"Focus on the present," Arcueid snapped. It looked like Satsuki was also starting to realize the magnitude of Shirou's actions. "He probably weighed up the benefits and chose the best option. Those people are dead. We'll be disrespecting their sacrifice if we let this opportunity go to waste." Mentally patting herself on the back she scanned the dust and locked onto the form of Rizo-Waal Strout who was moving away trying to re-join Altrouge.
Arcueid refused to let that happen though and she reacted by summoning the molten streets behind him and forming it into a wall of lava in front of him. One benefit was that when Shirou destroyed the city he effectively removed the civilisation allowing her to use her Marble Phantasm far more freely. Still the wall barely halted him for more than a second as he slashed forward with his sword causing the thousands of curses to disintegrate the wall in front of him. She caught up to him in an instant but had to back up just as fast as the wave of curses impacted the area she stood in momentarily.
"You really don't want to get in between me and her," Strout said, his voice low and threatening.
"You're actually standing between me and Shirou," Arcueid rebutted. "So I'm saying the same thing right back to you."
Strout's eyes narrowed and he raised his sword parallel to him before charging forward at the White Princess.
xxx
Shirou dodged to the side as the massive clawed hand of Primate Murder flew past the side of his head creating a vacuum of wind pressure as it did so. He really did not want to try his hand directly against the formerly White Beast so he allowed the Gugalanna to take those wounds on his behalf. While he would have liked the assistance of Arcueid and the others they would have just hindered him in this situation. The Bull of Heaven was an indiscriminate natural disaster that was taking all their concentration just to steer in the right direction. Ishtar had long charmed the beast and was beloved by it and Gugalanna knew better than to mess with Enki and thus the two of them were safe from its wrath, the rest wouldn't be.
The hairs on his neck stood up on end as billions of volts slammed into the body of Primate Murder and he took it head on, protecting Altrouge from the bolts of white lightning that repeatedly struck. Still the fight needed his contribution also. It was possible Gugalanna couldn't defeat it or that Ishtar would run out of prana eventually despite the constant stream that flowed through him from the runes.
"Let's uneven theses odds," Shirou said as he raised his arm and a massive sword of ice formed above and struck down upon the formerly White Wolf.
xxx
Arcueid dodged another slash from True Demon Neardark and contemplated once more that the sword really stood up to its moniker of True Demon. She couldn't approach him for fear of infection by the curses and thus she was forced to stay out of his range using her Marble Phantasm to harass him by dropping boulders, creating volcanoes, summoning tornadoes and dozens of other natural disasters, but he survived each one, easily regenerating from countless instances of destroyed flesh, shattered bones and torn muscle.
Tapping her foot and creating a trench beneath him, Arcueid tried to bury him, drowning her opponent in a mix of stone and soil. At first Strout made progress against the tide of earth that battled him but as Arcueid gritted her teeth the streams of rock grew to rivers of land that buried the resisting Ancestor under the hill.
Arcueid wiped the sweat off of her brow and took a deep breath. She had no illusions that Strout would be killed by the burial but she was confident that it would buy her some time. She focused on the golden and black collosi that were fighting in the distance. They had already travelled miles but they were still clearly visible as there was no standing structure to block the line of sight. Sighing Arcueid crouched down mentally calculating the distance that she had to travel and in the next second she leapt towards the pair.
Or at least that was her intent. The instant before her feet left the ground she felt a hand grasp her ankle and she instinctively looked down just in time to see a familiar black sword plunge towards her thigh. Indescribable pain hit her the next second and her nerves screamed as black fire spread up the stump of her leg and she bared her teeth trying to heal from the onslaught of pain that was slowly…
Suddenly the pain vanished and Arcueid stumbled back onto two fully healed legs. In an instant she was grabbed and dragged away from the stream of curses.
"Not all are Vampiric goddesses," Aoko scolded her panting slightly as she did so. "Give us some time to catch up to you."
"You healed me," Arcueid said dumbly.
"I erased the time in which you got injured," Aoko clarified. "Now come on we can't let Satsuki handle him alone."
Arcueid turned around immediately and to her great surprise she found that Satsuki actually did seem to be able to handle her alone. Her skin glimmered grey and her hands were tipped with knifelike claws. To the surprise of the other two she managed to clash against the black sword without any sign of the curses affecting her. Arcueid and Aoko watched as the youngest of their group fought head to head with the sixth Dead Apostle Ancestor.
"How?" Strout said as he locked blades with Satsuki's claws before punching her in the face sending her backwards. "How are you able to resist Neardark.
Satsuki clicked her neck and wiped a bit of blood off the corner of her mouth. "Might as well tell you," she said flippantly. "It's all Sumire's doing," she answered while smiling. "Almost all of the creatures that she sent towards me had some form of curse resistance. I thought it was odd at the time but it seems like she was one step ahead. Even from the grave my master is still looking out for me," Satsuki said wistfully.
"You're Sumire's apprentice," Strout said eying up the younger woman. "Good. I cannot miss an opportunity to end another of her apprentices."
In response Satsuki just raised an eyebrow and made a come hither gesture and Arcueid was struck with nostalgia at how Satsuki had evolved in the four years she had known her.
"She's really grown hasn't she," Arcueid said to herself. Sumire would truly have been proud she thought more sombrely before shaking her head and leaping into the fray once again.
xxx
The gigantic ice sword impacted the black boned beast with a sound like a thunderclap but the armoured creature didn't buckle under the weight. Huffing in slight annoyance Shirou turned the ice into frozen slurry that clung to the beasts back before solidifying in an attempt to freeze it but it didn't do much good as Primate Murder shook itself free of the frost. The momentary distraction did some good however as Gugalanna took advantage of it to drive its horns into the beast, goring bloodless holes in the black exoskeleton.
Shirou raised his hand again in an attempt to further lock down the beast when his senses went wild a second after he received a blow to the chest that launched him right off the Bull of Heaven. Immediately teleporting back and conscientiously ignoring his crushed bones he arrived just in time to prevent Altrouge Brunestud from beheading his servant. Summoning both of the golden swords Gilgamesh gave him he locked blades with her hands and was slightly surprised to see that they did not cut, but instead his own muscles nearly buckled under the pressure of those pair of blades.
"Cannot go easy, right," Shirou muttered to himself realizing that the air had already begun to lose oxygen and the heaviness had already started to settle on him. Pulling his one hand away from the handle of the sword and leaving a hand of ice in place he lashed out, his fist becoming cloaked in a block of ice as he aimed for Altrouge's centre mass. The fist predictably was avoided as Altrouge flipped over it and launched a killing strike at the neck of Shirou, but Shirou was not caught unawares and he teleported directly above the Eclipse Princess and then immediately teleported behind her again just as she turned to meet him. A kick slammed into her unprotected back and she was launched upwards into the air before her back glowed with runes and she exploded.
There was no way in hell that would put her down so Shirou leapt backwards in time to avoid a meteoric punch that even managed to even dent Gugulanna's impossibly hard body. Countless bullets of water evaded or deflected serve as a distraction as they burst into mist obscuring her vision allowing him to put a bullet in her head. Unfortunately her unpredictable movements caused him to miss her eye and she recovered almost instantly rushing forward and swiping at him forcing him to engage her with the swords again. The blows came hard and fast and Shirou pushed prana into the Emiya crest to keep pace with her. There was a firm technique in her attacks that his mediocre level of swordsmanship couldn't manage, so he cheated. Leaning forward as his swords locked he spat acid into her eyes and then when she stumbled he unleashed [Amessunu Istenis] into her chest.
The backlash of unleashing it at such a short range nearly broke his fingers, but to his grudging amazement the Vampire Princess powered through his ultimate attack and lashed out in a display of raw power and speed that left Shirou unable to do anything but defend as sword met claw. Stepping backwards Shirou waited for a break in the attack but none came as the blows picked up speed and Shirou's ears nearly bled as the sound barrier broke hundreds of times a second.
The end of the bout was swift and unexpected; there was no impending sound of metal creaking or ominous cracks as the sword on the left snapped in two, unable to bear the pressure laid upon it and the claws eviscerated Shirou carving deep into flesh and organs. Letting out a silent scream, Shirou froze the wound and started summoning his armour, but he didn't get much of an opportunity as Altrouge focused on his unarmed left side and he was forced to defend with ice that barely impeded her strikes at all.
His salvation came at the hands of a collection of brilliant arrows of glowing light that coalesced on the spot of the opposing vampire. Less than one in a hundred actually managed to hit her, but those that did managed to scorch her flesh and Shirou contemplated whether it was due to Ishtars natural power or the vampire's natural weakness towards light. Ishtar represented Venus, not the sun so it must be the former he decided as he became encased in armour of ice. Leaping forward he intercepted Altrouge just as the Bull of Heaven roared once more, and rearied up on its hindlegs and the two of them went tumbling off the side of Gugalanna.
xxx
Satsuki stumbled as the ground crumbled beneath her feet and was immediately forced to duck under a slash that would have parted her head from her shoulders. As the fight wore on the ground had been infected by the myriad of curses to an extent even greater than the one Shirou had cleared out a year ago. As a result the ground seemed to actively work against them, shifting subtly in order to inconvenience them. She had already lost count of the number of times she had lost her foothold on the crumbling malignant ground.
She disengaged slightly as a tornado shredded into Strout's flesh, although he quickly shrugged it off. Arrows rained down on him and he dodged and deflected all of them shrugging off the destructive magic of Aoko that could easily level buildings. Those arrows of Heracles had done the most damage by far out of all of them. They very seldom hit as the Black Knight gave the highest priority to stopping them, and the few that hit had prompted him to tear out his own flesh rather than suffer through the unbelievably deadly poison.
If she had to fight Strout alone she would have undoubtedly lost. Mountains of strength were contained in his muscular form and his speed was fast enough that Satsuki could barely track him with her eyes. Despite her inherent resistance to curses she would have been long been overwhelmed by these two factors.
Even as she said that Strout dodged to avoid a few more of those venomous missiles and Satsuki took the opportunity to launch a crystalline fist into his ribs, breaking the flesh, snapping the bones and causing him to stumble back a few steps. Still she almost bit her tongue as a lightning fast haymaker impacted her skull in response to her minor overextension. She tasted copper in her mouth and she saw dancing sparks out of the corner of her eyes but she forced herself to get back into the fight. While the assault from Aoko, Arcueid and Heracles had bought her some time, ultimately none of them could even fight this close to the curse filled sword. Launching herself at the swordsmen she ducked beneath the sword and lashed out with clawed hands plunging through his stomach and then his chest
She was forced to instantly retreat as the True Demon Neardark sliced through the space she occupied a fraction of a second ago. Strout regenerated as she watched and then spinning his sword, he released a black mist of curses that seemed to eat away at the world and faded from sight.
"Since when could he do that?" Satsuki heard Arcueid say in that back ground and a tornado picked up that was utterly ineffective against the black fog. Suddenly it swelled forward and Satsuki prepared herself for the onslaught of curses, trusting in the resistance bestowed upon her by her mentor's creatures. Rushing forward like a swarm of insects she stood ready against the incoming darkness. Suddenly her concentration was broken by another bellow from the giant bull. That split second cost her dearly.
Satsuki looked down. Just that simple act took all her energy. She had a weird double vision thing going on and her head felt a million times heavier. She tried to take a breath but the oxygen didn't quite seem to reach her lungs. Looking downwards her eyes saw the source of the problem. A massive black sword had stabbed in through her stomach. "Wait," her hazy thoughts slowly corrected as more and more neurons went silent. "It wasn't stabbed, it was a slash…" those were the last thoughts that went through her head before the top half of her body split in two sending both halves into the ground. Her sight faded to darkness as she felt innumerable curses invade her soul.
xxx
Ishtar let out a hail of Babylonian curses as she fought to regain control over Gugalanna again. The beast constantly demanded her attention or he would indiscriminately rampage. Just firing a few arrows in order to save Shirou had caused her to lose control over the Divine Beast and she was very lucky that Gugalanna seemed to regard Primate Murder with an ubelievable amount of hostility. In the brief moments that he had been let off the leash he had gored the wolf before roaring at it with the concentrated force of a hurricane. Primate Murder had not escaped unscathed from those wounds and while the armour had swiftly grew back and the bones had easily returned to their healed state, Ishtar had seen in that instant that the creature was not invincible and that the Bull of Heaven was more than enough to hurt it.
An explosion of ice blossomed on the back of the Beast of Gaia and Ishtar's enhanced vision managed to pick out the icy armoured form of Shirou fighting Altrouge on top of the Beast. "How did he get on there," Ishtar wondered as she fought to regain control over the Bull of Heaven. Her efforts proved fruitless as the raging storm disguised as a bull had sunk fully into bloodlust.
"Screw it," she decided. Shirou needed her help. Gugalanna could handle Primate Murder. Running to the edge and taking a leap, she overshot her target, the Beast of Gaia embarrassingly rushing beneath her as Primate Murder lurched forward, jaws wide in an attempt to bite down on the bull. That was Gugalanna's concern however, not Ishtar's. She was just about to summon her Boat of Heaven Maana in order to get back when a wall of ice appeared in front of her and she gratefully twisted her body to ricochet off it and onto the back of the wolf.
As she landed on the muscular back of the beast she had to pause for a moment to appreciate the fight between Altrouge and Shirou. Countless shards of ice were casually smashed into pieces by Altrouge forming a pervasive mist that she ignored as she advanced towards the icy armour that sprouted multiple frosted arms and flung jets of water at hypersonic speed.. Ishtar drew a bead on the evolved vampire letting out dozens of beams of light with enough power each to scorch a city block. Manifestation of Beauty activated, her skill negating any attempt at defense or attack against the goddess that defined beauty. Or at least that's what it would originally have done. Incarnated as a servant it would only decrease the parameters of opponents and seal off some of their skills and she had used it to great effect in the last barrage. That unbeatable combination bore down upon her opponent.
Ishtar nearly died in that second. Unlike last time when she had caught the ascended apostle off guard, this time Altrouge reacted instantly doing a half turn and punching the air with such force that all the arrows of light utterly shattered and Ishtar was blown backwards by the miniature hurricane. Unfortunately at that instant Primate Murder went flying as Gugalanna reacted and ran the wolf through with its horns.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Gaia's Beast retaliate with a blast of white light from its mouth that scorched away the golden skin of the Bull. That observation nearly cost her as Altrouge decided she was a far more tempting target than the crafty Magician. She dodged to the left twisting her body in a manner that would cause even the most skilled contortionist to spit out their drink. She managed to dodge it by a hairs breadth but the heat from the blow scorched her side and the vampire immediately turned to launch a follow-up kick that would split her in half.
That kick didn't come however as Shirou teleported behind Altrouge, armourless and with moisture coalescing around his hands he attempted to launch some form of killing strike at the back of the female Dead Apostle Ancestor. It didn't reach as Altrouge swivelled launching a kick at Shirou instead and Ishtar heard a sickening crack as his arms bent in places they weren't supposed to and he went sliding back across the armoured back of the Wolf.
Altrouge immediately abandoned her attack on Ishtar and leapt towards Shirou in an attempt to take advantage of his weakness. That was a mistake however as halfway through the leap Primate Murder's back lit up with runes beneath her before exploding in a wave of heat and light. The Beast of Gaia howled in pain and it took a few moments for Ishtar to understand the obvious that was in front of her face. The wounds were not healing. Even as Primate Murder started to thrash forcing herself to run to keep her balance on top of the monster, even as Altrouge regenerated and resumed attacking Shirou with twice the fury, to be met with an autonomously operating armour of ice, even as she joined in firing arrows of light that did little if any damage, still the Beast of Gaia would not heal.
"I don't know what you're doing," she said to Shirou as her hands blurred as she drew and notched arrow after arrow. "But keep it."
xxx
Rizo-Waal Strout gasped in pain at the loss of his left arm to a jet of magma. Even though it grew back almost instantly the pain faded far slower than the damage and he could feel the mental fatigue continue to build. Ever since he had killed the brown haired disciple of Sumire the fight hadn't gotten any easier. There were generally two kinds of people when it came to fighting, those who grew weaker with anger and those who grew stronger. After this fight he could safely say that the White Princess was in the former camp. The cursed Miasma hid him but it did no good as the earth was blanketed by lightning strikes and burnt in lava and shredded by typhoon winds. He was unusually durable by the standards of Dead Apostle Ancestors but even he would reach his limit if the White Princess didn't stop her assault. Alone he would have moved against the other Brunestud and tried to trap her in the curses but the destructive blasts from the Fifth Magician were somehow able to vaporise the curses and he had to constantly worry about her. At least the Archer had stopped wasting his arrows. Those unbelievably powerful arrows would have killed anybody with less vitality than him. If he had faltered for even a moment in tearing out pieces of his own body he would almost certainly be dead now.
Unfortunately he couldn't see any way out. The air turned to acid and his lungs burned but his regeneration took care of it. After the ritual, he felt strong. He was maybe strong enough to take on the White Princess herself, but not strong enough to take on her and two additionally powerful beings. Resolving himself to try he gripped his sword tightly… and a chill went up his back.
Something was watching him. He only noticed it now, but it was definitely focused on him and had been for God knows how long. His eyes scanned the darkness uselessly. He couldn't see through the miasma any better than any other, but his possession of True Demon Neardark allowed him to sense anything the curses affected. That was why it was such an eerie feeling when he sensed nothing at all.
An unbelievable amount of bloodlust hit him for an instant and he reacted in that same instant, bringing up True Demon Neardark to guard his back. Still even with that minute amount of forewarning the blow hit his sword like a truck and it took all he had to keep standing. The assailant didn't capitalise on his weakness and he had a few seconds rest before he had to guard himself from another one of those powerful, taking the force on the side of his blade.
"Who are you?" he demanded uselessly to the dark. "Are you my enemy?"
No answer was forthcoming, at least not a verbal one. Punches ran down from every angle causing his sword arm to falter and his bones to splinter under the persistent onslaught. He gritted his teeth and endured but somehow his opponent could see through the mist and yet he could not see his opponent. Without seeing it he could not read its attacks. This put him at an unbelievable disadvantage and yet if he dispelled the mist then he would be at the mercy of the True Ancestor, the Magician and the Archer.
The decision was made for him however for in the next instant the mist cleared, absorbed into her in a display that was different from anything he had seen before. Standing before him was the woman that he had nearly sliced completely in two without a scratch on her. Strout reeled the momentary shock before swiftly recovering. Healing from that wound was not that unusual, he could easily do it, his mistress and most of the other Dead Apostle Ancestors could also do it. The problem was that when he stabbed her he pumped her blood full of curses. She should be dead with a hundredth of the dose he gave her. No possible curse resistance could have stood up to that.
Raising his sword he examined his priorities. He was once again outnumbered and outmanoeuvred. With his newfound strength he might be able to defeat the White Princess but there was no way he could defeat the four of them without another lucky break.
"Do you know that I have a Reality Marble?" Satsuki said interrupting his deliberations. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other three halt at the sight of their friend.
"No," he said warily, trying to buy time.
"It's simple I can absorb the DNA, the blueprints of any creature and apply it to my own body," she stated causing Strout to stiffen as he tried to contemplate which creature allowed her to resist the curses. "And now you're wondering which creature gave me curse resistance," she said confidently, enjoying having one over her opponent. "It's simple," she said almost whispering the words. "I've just absorbed the DNA of a True Demon."
Despite all his awareness he was still caught off guard by her words. In the next instant she lunged forward with her hands that had sprouted crystals again and when Strout tried to block the sudden attack with True Demon Neardark she managed to grab his sword almost effortlessly, the blade naturally fitting into her grip. He was briefly halted, and the moment was more than enough as his nerves relayed a sudden pain in his wrist and he looked down in despair to see his fleshed penetrated by the poisonous arrow.
"That's it then," he said feeling agony start to course through his veins. There was a weird feeling besides the poison that flowed through him that he vaguely recalled as despair. He had lost. A swordsman does not let go of their weapon. Furthermore without his faithful sword he would not be able to even put up a token fight. When it came down to a choice between dying with his sword in his hand or not… Well it wasn't really a choice at all.
"I'm sorry I could not adequately repay your kindness Princess," he addressed his master and friend before discarding his remorse. He was for all intents and purposes already dead, well dead twice now, but he was eager to see how long his corpse could survive if he abandoned his restraint. The pain of the poison was excruciating so he discarded his sense of pain, effectively lobotomising the portion of his brain that allowed him to feel discomfort. Smiling for no good reason he leapt forward, with no hope, at the brown-haired girl aiming to kill her, then the Archer, then the White Princess, then the Magician.
There were three minutes between his time of death and when his corpse stopped moving. And thus Rizo-Waal Strout the sixth Dead Apostle Ancestor died.
xxx
Altrouge Brunestud was actually getting quite angry. It was actually quite unusual for her, she reflected as she launched a punch towards the aggravating master feeling the air combust as the wind compressed. Slowly she became the centre of a firestorm as the sheer kinetic energy her every movement gave off caused the surrounding temperature to rocket. Dodging to the side to avoid another barrage of those deadly arrows she spun around kicking the air and creating a sonic boom that towards that annoying servant. The omnipresent mist that was formed by the collision of ice and fire disappeared momentarily as the wind blew through and Altrouge watched in hopeful anticipation that faded into annoyance as the enemy Rider dodged the miniature gale, her only damage being a few strands of her hair.
Hopefully that would stop the bint from shooting at her when she had her back turned. Growling in annoyance she charged towards the ice armour hoping to finally evaporate it to the point it could no longer repair. Motion appeared in the corner of her eye and she turned on a dime, arm whipping out towards the teleporting form of her enemy.
Whereas initially he had fought her from the armour, he now had fully abandoned it and used his speed and teleportation to harry her while summoning more and more of the ice and water to attack her from all sides. The constant rain didn't help, giving him a source of nearly infinite water that he used to summon constructs of ice and water to harm her. She had even tried to blow away the clouds and somewhat succeeded. The sheer power behind her blows in her ascended state was enough to clear the skies but they soon resumed as long as that Bull was alive.
The red-headed master teleported from multiple angles and she was forced to block all of his punches before getting in one of her own and she heard the sound of crunching indicating that she had at least broken the ice protecting him if not his bones. The other golden sword that he had earlier wielded stabbed at her from her blind spot, but she managed to sense it and easily snapped the weapon.
That wasn't a good idea as the weapon exploded into a wave that slammed down upon her with the force of a mountain. Even still her legs didn't buckle and she endured it wading through the water in an attempt to catch the elusive master. Primate Murder shook and she almost lost her balance wincing at the wounds inflicted upon her beloved pet before dismissing them. Primy had always been tough, worse wounds had been inflicted upon him before and he had always recovered from them. This time won't be any different.
"You know I've often wondered about a vampire's regeneration," Shirou said from behind her and she swiftly turned her hands moving to destroy the hundreds of icy needles. She leapt at him only to be intercepted by that icy armour that he had once donned. "It's due to the vampire's innate connection with Gaia," he explained. "You actually no longer possess it."
"Impossible," Altrouge responded as she pummelled the ice in front of her. She was grudgingly impressed at its durability. With every punch whole portions of the armour were obliterated but she was sure that she could destroy entire streets with an equally powerful punch. "My regeneration hasn't waned. Instead it's grown stronger."
"Yup," Shirou said chirpily and massive swords of ice shot down towards the Dead Apostle Ancestor. Altrouge casually dodged them and they bit into the beasts muscle. "Lunarians have a naturally powerful healing factor, far more so than the average Dead Apostle or even Ancestor." Altrouge finished off the armour with a single punch and strode towards him.
"Why do you feel the need to chat," she said walking right up to him. "I've already told you what I'm going to do to you?"
"I actually don't normally chat in battle," Shirou said. "I find it pointless, but sometimes I make an exception. So let me explain. I have to physically insert oxygenated water in my throat to breathe in this fucking vacuum you've generated. So I'm going to make it short."
"Vampires use their connection to the World to heal and so do some phantasmal beasts like your pet here," Shirou said smiling despite the harbinger of death that stood a metre away from him. "When their connection to the World disappears so does their factor. Tell me Altrouge," he said as his smile turned sinister. "When was the last time you used your Marble Phantasm?"
Altrouge felt shock hit her and for a moment every cell in her body froze. When was the last time she used it? Why hadn't she thought of using it before? She looked at her hands. She hadn't even thought of using it because it felt so unnatural. She tried to use her Marble Phantasm but it felt like a limb was missing. An indescribable feeling of loss welled up within her and she had to blink back tears at the thought of it being gone.
But Shirou wasn't finished yet. "But even now you're still not seeing the bigger picture," he continued mercilessly. "Everywhere you stand is converted into the environment of the Moon. What do you think that would do to certain creatures like…" he paused. "Your pet here? Open fire with everything you have on Altrouge Brunestud," Shirou said coolly before he teleported away.
Thousands of thoughts flashed through the older Brunestud's head. Her loss of her Marble Phantasm was shocking to the extreme but the thought that she could actually be hurting Primy made it hard to breathe. At some point during the speech she had fallen to her knees and she now scrambled to her feet in time to see a massive lightning bolt strike down at the space she stood at. Primy dodged it but her friend took some more damage and she winced at the wounds she had taken. She needed to get away from him. She was poisoning him just by being there. Just as she was about to put her thoughts into action she felt pain stab her through the heart.
The source was unknown and got caught in her thoughts trying to understand it. Something was badly wrong. Primate Murder moved and twisted his body to avoid the combined attacks of Gugalanna, Ishtar and Shirou but the wounds continued to accumulate upon his body. Altrouge didn't notice any of this however as she continued to think. In actuality she had come to the conclusion pretty quickly but refused to accept it. She always maintained a firm grasp of where her servants were. She just must have lost Rizo. It must be a momentary thing. Too much bad news in a short amount of time must have caused her to lose track of him. Rizo can't be dead. Why did that preposterous thought even enter her head? It's so stupid. She's so stupid. Her tears outdid the rain and, no longer in a right state of mind, she fell off the back of Primate Murder. 'He's dead,' she thought as numbness spread from the wound in her heart. "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead," she repeated refusing to accept it."
A bolt of lightning dwarfing any seen before rushed towards her to put her out of her misery and she closed her eyes accepting death. It never came. Stepping in front of the lightning and absorbing the full force of the power of nature was Primy. He howled out his pain but still he stood there. In an instant hundreds of arrows of light and an equal amount of jets of powerful water joined in with the lightning punishing his body but he refused to move.
"Save yourself," Altrouge wanted to scream but she couldn't and she could only watch in horror as her last remaining friend's wounds accumulated. "Get away from me," she eventually forced out in barely a whisper. "I'm poison, leave me here."
Primy heard and turned to look at her. His visage was horrifying. Barely any of his head remained and the majority of his flesh had been stripped away. Nothing was healing and in fact the opposite happened, the remnants of his flesh seemed to be falling apart as his immense power dissipated. His one remaining eye showed no condemnation, instead only gratitude and acceptance showed in the remains of his face. Shuffling up to her he started to shrink and yet the attacks didn't wane at all. Only when he reached her did the attacks cease and by that stage he was only the size of a horse. Reaching her he licked her face and while Altrouge was never a fan of licking that particular area, the thought of refusing never crossed her mind. She raised her arms to hug him but her arms could not embrace him any longer as the Beast of Gaia, the fifth Dead Apostle Ancestor succumbed to his wounds in her arms.
'It's funny,' she thought as she lay there under the disintegrating body of her friend. I don't feel sad. When Rizo had died a few minutes ago she had felt crushed. She had felt like she would never be happy again. With Primy dead she no longer had any reason to care. She wanted to curse the stupid ritual for stealing her friends but in the end it was a wasted effort. She stood up pushing the empty piece of meat that used to contain her friend and walked forward. She had no more time for this world.
Stepping through the rainy streets she was easily able to spot the red haired one that had stolen her life. Thoughts of revenge lit up inside her brain before she discarded them all. There was no longer a reason to worry about those things. She would be dead soon. Walking up to him, she idly noticed that the Bull was gone. Whether dismissed as unnecessary or faded due to it running out of prana she neither knew nor cared. The one who ruined her plans had no satisfaction on his face but wore a mask of regret but Altrouge could not bring herself to care.
"Finish it," she said walking up to him. He paused for a moment in response but ultimately didn't insult her by questioning her motives. Instead he strode forward up to her and examined her. Growing slightly irritated by how long she was taking Altrouge recalled something. "Here," she said taking out a vial full of that black liquid she had acquired so long ago and placing it in his hand. "Take this."
Pain entered his eyes and for a brief moment Altrouge felt some triumph before the feeling quickly disappeared into the abyss that was her chest at the moment. Still it seemed that giving him the vial was enough to clear up any thoughts on reluctance. In the next second he placed his hand over her head and after not more than three seconds, Altrouge Brunestud the Ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor died.
xxx
"Are you okay Shirou," Ishtar asked as the Magician examined the vial of black.
"I will be," he replied after a long few seconds. "I can't believe this is over. Man it's been a long night." He laughed a bit before glancing at the black vial. "I'm exhausted. I know Tiamat's still a problem but let's handle it tomorrow."
"Yeah, I'm also running on empty," Ishtar admitted fatigue after this painfully long night. "But where are we going to sleep," she gestured at the ruined city causing Shirou to wince. "There's not an overabundance of prime real estate around here."
"We could go to a hotel," Shirou suggested, having long overcome his fear of hotels. "But those might be overbooked. I'm sure we can just ask the church for…"
There was absolutely no warning. In one second Shirou was conversing and in the next he had been pushed away. He landed awkwardly and scrambled to his feet. Scanning the field to see what had hit him. He didn't have to look long to understand what had impacted him and the reason why. Standing in front of him was his beloved servant, fellow god and friend, with a hole through her chest that had almost certainly obliterated one of her cores.
"I'm sorry," Ishtar said although she although she had nothing to apologize for.
"Just hold on," Shirou said uselessly as Ishtar started to dissolve into prana. He stumbled forward but only reached a meter before his instincts screamed. He dodged backwards as an arrow landed at his feet and exploded into heat and light. Flung away by the force of the explosion Shirou could only endure as he hit the ground for the second time in the last minute. He could feel the burns all over his body and he instinctively cooled the water on his skin to take care of it.
Scrabbling to his feet, his heart lurched painfully for the second time in the last five minutes as Ishtar was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his hand with one remaining command seal. "Come to me Ishtar," he commanded but there was no response. The Command Seal did not disappear or even react in any manner. "Please come to me Ishtar," he begged, but it changed nothing. Suddenly his body was restrained and he found himself unable to move or teleport as another arrow tore through his left shoulder. He used his magic on the spell to [break] it and his head started to ache from the effort. His instincts screamed at him again as he sensed a person behind him but he was too late and he felt a knife stab into his spinal cord. Stumbling forward he fell to the ground.
Nolava II tried to fix his wounds but he had barely any prana after the fight and the headache and losses he suffered didn't make it any easier to concentrate. He summoned the remnants of water from his body in an attempt to destroy the few sources of mystical energy he could perceive. Locking onto his target he prepared to fire off his entire arsenal of H20 when all of a sudden he lost control of the liquid causing it to fall to the ground.
"I cannot allow you to do that Enki," a feminine voice called out and Shirou's attention was immediately grasped. Tired as he was, weak as he was, nobody should be able to overcome his control over water. Nobody except for another god of water.
"Hello Tiamat," Enki said in response trying to focus on her through the pain. "Nice weather we're having."
"I predict far more rains in the future," Tiamat responded. She was in the form of a lithe blond girl that looked quite a bit younger than him. She smiled at him. "Unfortunately I cannot have you interfering. Take a nap Enki," she said with an almost motherly tone of concern.
The next second he was crushed under thousands of tons of water and Shirou Inke died.
Author Note: This chapter took me forever courtesy of tremendously bad writers block. I think I'm going to write a chapter or two of one of my other stories before I go onto the final day of the Grail War.
Indra Uzumaki: Absolutely nobody can fix the damage. About the virus, I was naturally skeptical but I logged off anyway because that bit was harmless. I work in a corporate environment so I'm naturally suspicious of emails like that.
First Thaumaturgy: The bull at full power required two of the strongest heroic spirits put together and empowered and blessed by the gods wielding two of the strongest Noble Phantasm's ever to win. Ishtar's damn strong but when the bull was fully unleashed in Fate/Strange Fake it caused an 800 km wide hurricane.