36: Black Knight Blitz
What's happening? What's happening? I can't see - there's black metal in front of my face. I can't hear anything other than a high-pitched ringing.
I'm on the ground. How did I end up on the ground? The black shifts away from in front of my face - ah, so it was Mash's shield. Looking at it now, it seems she tackled me to the ground. That's good. I might have died otherwise.
Even as I stand up, I can't make out what's happening - the air is so full of dust and ash that all I can see is faint sparks here and there, accompanied by the distant noise of metal clashing against metal.
"...pai! ...still… afe…!" Mash yells as she grabs me by the shoulder and drags me behind her shield. I mutter out a quick apology as I squint through the cloud of dust to try and find our other allies, and figure out where that Berserker is.
"...Uuuur!" a garbled voice screams, and the dust cloud is blown away in a burst of sheer force as the Berserker swings one of the cannons he was wielding earlier, smashing it into the ground.
A wet slap echoes accompanies the cratering thud as red liquid sprays out of the crumpled mass of metal and meat beneath his improvised club, painting the earth bright crimson.
"Ah." I mutter numbly.
Frantically, my eyes scan the clearing. From the roots of a tree lying on its side to my right, just a little behind Mash and myself, I see a faint fog of blackish-purple dust - falling off of a discarded mass of meat and guts tangled up in it - at the top I can see a mop of white and red hair.
"Aaah."
We didn't have anyone like that with us. We didn't have anyone with white and red hair in our group.
And where Reid had been standing when the Berserker arrived, just ahead of us and to the right, in the center of the crater from his opening salvo… there's a charred pile of flesh.
"Aaaah!" I yell, shaking my head. Damn it! Goddammit, I can't pretend I don't know what's going on here! I can't close my eyes to it! That's right, I know, I know okay! That meat pile is Reid, the mess hanging from those roots is Prelati, and that twisted mass of metal and meat at the center of the clearing is-!
"Hope… n't thinking you... just yet, you!" The First Sword Saint calls out as he cuts his way free of the charred flesh surrounding him in a spray of blood and strange black sludge.
...Ugh, somehow I still feel relieved, even though I hate the guy. Come to think of it, that meat pile had been a bit too big to match the rest of the pattern.
"Aaaah!" The humanoid shadow roars, tossing his cannon aside and taking up a sprinter's stance, his head twitching with madness.
"What… you? This thing… Daphne's [Black Serpent], you. Qualifies this brat… Rider class. ...nasty, but it works as a shield in a pinch." Reid says as the ringing in my ears finally dies down.
...The [Black Serpent]. One of the three great Witchbeasts created by the Witch of Gluttony, the only one of the three that I hadn't encountered until now. It was supposedly the worst of the three, so terrible that even the venom that leaked from its fangs had a hunger of its own and hunted prey as if it were alive.
I guess it makes some kind of twisted sense. Even if Roy Alphard didn't ride the thing in life, he was still plenty connected to it - Alphard is, after all, one of the stars in the [Hydra] constellation.
I'm brought back to reality as the black tar pooling around the serpent's corpse bubbles upwards, rising, the Witchbeast's venom seeking food to sate its hunger.
"None of that, you." Reid mutters, swiping his sword and wiping the creature's remnants from existence. I breathe a quick sigh of relief - I've been eaten by Daphne's kids enough for one lifetime, thanks.
"AaaaAAAHHH!"
My brief relief turns to panic as the Berserker suddenly shoots into action - rocketing straight past Mash and I, his clawed fingers digging into the fallen tree that Prelati's now-dissolved corpse had been hanging from.
Mash raises her shield, but he ignores us entirely, opting instead to charge down the sloping crater towards Reid, tree clasped in both hands, black and red lines swiftly covering its entire surface.
"...Hell's that supposed to be, you?" Reid says with a roll of his eyes, cleaving both the tree and the shadow covering it in twain, his blade gleaming with white light as it stretches a good ten meters to cut the whole thing. In a single upward strike, he annihilates the Berserker's weapon.
"Think you can intimidate me with size, you? Don't be so damn clumsy, you!" He roars, charging through the storm of leaves cast into the air by his strike, and towards the shadowy Berserker.
A shower of blood erupts from the swirl of leaves. Reid tumbles through them, his body a mangled mess, slashed to ribbons by absolutely nothing.
No. Not by nothing. By the leaves. Looking at them closely - the same black and red corruption that had been covering the tree, had reached the leaves as well.
"Gkh, you… not swinging the stick, but the leaves too, you…?" Reid mutters as he collapses.
"Aaah." The shadow rumbles, drawing something from its waist - a musket, I realise, and now that I can see it, I can actually make out four or five more hanging off his belt. He points the gun at the Sword saint's head - he's going to execute him, I realize.
He's going to die. Reid Astrea was defeated in combat, by a cheap trick, and now he's going to die.
"[Minya]!" someone yells, and a flurry of purple spikes are launched at the Berserker, forcing him to dodge and turn his attention to his attacker.
"AaaaAAAH!" the Shadow yells, head twitching, as he turns to stare at me.
Ah. It was me. I fired that spell, without even realizing it. I saved Reid's life, as though he weren't someone who I've had only negative experiences with. As if he were my friend.
"Is this...goddammit. Is this you as well… Flugel?" I mutter.
Mash glances at me quizzically, but I don't have time to explain myself. The Berserker charges us, rapidly drawing and discharging four muskets with the speed of a modern semi automatic rifle, but Mash's shield catches each shot - and then he's upon us, clawed hands catching Mash's shield as she swings it at him, threatening to tear it from her grasp.
Now. It has to be now. While he stares deeply into her eyes, burning red slit boring into Mash's gaze as he slowly tilts his head.
Right now, while he's preoccupied-!
"[Invisible Providence]." I whisper, and slowly, my unseen hand creeps, through mash's shield, through the black fog surrounding him, through the black armor covering his body, through his ribcage, and-!
At the very moment I find his heart, he just happens to slide backwards. A loose pebble. A stroke of [Luck]. That's the only thing that saves his life, as my [Invisible Providence] crushes the center of his breastplate.
And then, his gaze snaps to me. His hand shoots out, and before I can dismiss my unseen hand, he grabs it by the wrist, red lines creeping over its surface.
And then he tears, and all I can do is scream.
What is this what is this what is this.
It's like he unplugged a cork in my soul, and black bile is pouring out. It hurts, it's excruciating, what is this, how could he, how could this happen, in the face of my diligence, in the face of all the effort, of all that I've done to get here, how could he take it from me!?
"My brain… trembles…" The words tumble past my lips as tar fills my throat.
"Senpai!?" Mash yells, head whipping to stare at me, but that's a mistake, yes a mistake, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, a mistake-!
Four black hands erupt from the Berserker, and cling to her, and then she's sailing away, thrown through the air, and there's no one between me and him.
"Ah, Mash Kyrielight. How… slothful of you." I mutter deliriously as black smoke and tar pours from every orifice and my spine contorts and twists itself and the Berserker reaches for my neck and finally-!
[Love] envelops me.
Wise Up! - [Black Serpent]
Black Serpent of Gluttony: Daphne Hydrae
Rank: A
Type: Anti-Army
Range: 1-200
Maximum number of targets: 300 People.
The first of the Great Witchbeasts created by the Witch of Gluttony, Daphne. A phenomenally dangerous Phantasmal Beast that spewed all-devouring venom as it rampaged across the other world. It was the least controllable of the three, with only the [Witch of Vainglory] having any ability to manipulate it - and even her 'control' amounted to little more than "drop it in a place you want destroyed."
Since Roy had ties to the thing, metaphysically speaking, it has manifested as a Noble Phantasm that qualifies him for the Rider class. But in life he never rode upon the Black Serpent, and so his ability to control it is tenuous at best.
Incidentally, Reid can only control it for a few seconds during its initial summoning, after which it's turned loose - so he just uses it as an improvised shield.
Review Responses:
Misaka Phenex said:
hmm why don't subarun have his weapon...wiki told me about it...yes
He left it at home, unfortunately.
Firetrail said:
I can you imagine what Subaru's reaction would be if he summons Rem. Actually what would his reaction be? Tears or laughter or something else?
Why not all three?
Crown of Reaper said:
You know what would be cool? A Subaru from an IF story appeared in a Singularity. For example, Pride!Subaru appearing as an Assassin or Wrath!Subaru appearing as a Berzerker.
*Villainous laughter*
D. said:
A powerful ally, but one who may or may not just kill Subaru if it comes down to it. Not is his luck the worst. But hey, at least they got a ally who just killed Fafnir...poor Siegfried, will he have his time to shine in this story since someone else did his job?
Siegfried will have his chance to shine.
Yikes said:
Sorry if you already answered this but if subaru summons Subaru and the summoned Subaru dies what happens does time rest or keep going and will Subaru remember if the timeline dose reset
That's likely to be a plot point later, so I'm gonna stay quiet about it.