Ch 3
With quick flick of her wrists Saber deflected the next oversize bullet only for it to explode as well giving her another jolt and sending a sharp pain through her wrist. Recovering in an instant Saber threw herself forward at Vaurious bringing her sword down in an arch over her head.
Slow. She was much slower that she had estimated, falling far short of her intended speed. Never the less Saber was a blur of blue and silver as she charged, crossing the distance between herself and Vaurious in less than a second.
It was with a resounding clang their two swords met sending a shower of sparks up into the air. To her astonishment she found that he was immensely strong, stronger than she had estimated even accounting for his unnatural stature. Rather than cleaving his sword asunder and slashing through his armor to eviscerate him as she had planed the blow merely drove the giant back a step and caused him to get out a grunt of exertion. Surprised at his immense strength Saber almost missed it when another one of the huge bomb like projectiles came flying at her from the side. Her instinct did not miss it however, and she threw herself backwards to dodge the shot.
It missed her by only a little, shooting past and hinting the far wall of the chamber and exploding with an earsplitting 'Bang!' Saber looked over at the new threat and found that the gray haired giant had also drawn a similarly huge gun and was blazing away at her with it, holding the trigger down and letting out a burst of rapid fire that drummed out a thunderous ' BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!"
She deflected them all, one after the other, her sword wiping back and forth through the air as she knocked them away, the bolts exploding as she did so and sending a solid shock through her body each time. They were as almost strong as Archers arrows and just as swift.
Recovering quickly she shot the gray hared one a look of vehemence and leveled her sword at him in challenge only for the Black Heart to bear down on her with his huge blade swinging it forward to cut her in half at the waist.
"Perish in the name of the Emperor!" He shouted, his face twisting in rage as he swung.
Saber blocked the incoming strike, her arm giving a whole two inches as the crackling sword slammed into her guard. The man was inhumanly strong, so much so that though her strength still overwhelmed his she could not discount the power behind his sword. With a shove she pushed him backwards, noting the great exertion that it took to do so.
There was more to it than the armored giants strength. She was weak. She had spent the last 17 days bound to the world only by the circle, she had been a Masterless Servant during that time, and it seemed as though her power had not yet returned to her, the incomplete contract with her Master only serving to keep her anchored to the material realm. Furthermore her struggle against the wards had drained her strength even more, splitting what remained of her power dramatically.
Saber cursed to herself in her head, and blocked Vaurious counterstrike. Her suspicions were only affirmed when the gray haired one suddenly loomed in peripheral vision and her battle instinct barked at her to move her head back. She was not fast enough however, and an instant later a huge gauntleted fist struck her in the side of the face, lifting her off her feet and sending her flying across the room.
She landed on her feet, flipping in mid air to right herself, her steel boots hitting the floor and skidding slightly. It was worse than she had thought. Her powers were even weaker now than they had been under Shirou, and with those two, the armored ones, undoubtedly fearsome warriors in their own right not to mention Magi she would have a harder time than she originally presumed.
The gray haired one would have to go first, once his rapid fire weapon was out of the way then she could slay the Black Heart unhindered.
Her charge was staled again however when a hail of bright red beams suddenly struck her in the arms, chest and face accompanied by a sharp series of 'crack!' noises and painful flashes of heat. Saber brought her sword up instinctively trying to block them but the were unlike bullets, striking and vanishing faster than even she could see and coming at the pace of a machine gun.
The guards had joined the fray. Leveling their long rifle like guns which launched the strange beams they were firing at her in unison.
Shouts of "Purify it!" came from the masked men as they opened up on her, more than half a dozen of them making a hailstorm of red beams that pattered off her armor like rain.
"Gun it down don't let it recover!"
Saber flinched and recoiled in pain as two of the beams struck her in the face. They burned like fire, hot enough to sear her flesh normally impervious to mundane weapons. Shielding her face with her gauntlet she dodged to the side as the two armored giants fired at her again, filling the room with their gun's deafening reports.
Leaping forward Saber evaded the bullets completely, running straight at the nearest guard and decapitating him before he could even reach for his knife, blood fountaining up behind her as she moved past. Before the guards head had even hit the ground she had killed the two closest to him, bisecting one and decapitating the other also.
The next few moments were a slaughter, to the unfortunate guards Saber was a blur of speed, and while their weapons shot bolts at the speed of light and their hands were wonderously qucik it was no good. Even with their long years of practice hitting faster than human things, Daemons and chaos enhanced mutants, their weapons could not penetrate the armor of their target and in the enclosed space there was nowhere to go. It was a short affair, Saber evading or simply taking their fire head on and slashing them to pieces once she closed.
Finishing off the last one with a stab through the heart Saber looked up and surveyed the room. The guards had had their loyalty replayed by being abandoned halfway through the fight, the two armored ones and what other personnel still around by then beating a quick retreat to the door while she silenced the last of the strange beam guns.
Gazing up at the solid steel double doors Saber felt herself shudder with anger. To abandon one's own men! What contemptible trash. She would have thought that whatever else they might be, the armored men would not be cowards. It seemed that she was wrong.
She could hear people shouting on the other side of the now sealed door and made her way over to it ready to smash it down like a wall of paper. She paused as she drew nearer to it however, feeling yet another set of wards placed over the entrance probably in case of emergency's like this one. Approaching it she held out her hand to test it and was rewarded with a jolt of pain similar to the one she had felt earlier. These people were strong sorcerers, while she could have broken that ward as well Saber decided against it. Such might sap her strength even more and if she was weak enough to be stalled by the armored giants now then she did not think it was wise to further exhaust her reserves. Who knew what they had in store for her now that she had escaped? More guards at the least, and probably other much worse things. If they had been able to summon her without the Grail then much else might be within their power?
With that line of thought Saber looked down at her armor. It had not escaped the encounter unscathed and was scorched black in many places where the beams had hit it. She dismissed the damage, her armor would remove such blemishes in no time. For now it was her Master that she had to worry about.
Walking back over to the circle she made he way to the man who was lying down on the floor and inspected him. He was breathing steadily and for a moment she though that he had fallen asleep until he lifted his still blindfolded head and turned it towards her.
"Master." She said, her voice smooth and cool "Can you hear me?"
The man made no reply, only moaning softly and reaching his hand out to clumsily push on her face like an infant.
With a nudge from inside herself Saber sent a stream of her own prana though the link she possessed with Avalon, filling the sacred vessel like a cup with her power and feeling it go to work swiftly, running through the mans body bringing restoration wherever it touched. The healing power of Avalon. It should not be long now before he was restored, whatever horrors inflicted upon his body and even mind washed gently away by the power of the artifact.
Sure enough it was not long before the useless mess that had been his eyes began to mend, first regaining their shape and becoming white milky orbs and then becoming two full clear brown eyes. Saber felt a twinge of disappointment as they did not focus, instead lolling aimlessly in their sockets looking at her face for a moment in a distracted manner before moving on. It seemed as though his mind would take longer to repair. If it could be repaired at all. Now that she thought of it Saber was not at all certain that Avalon could heal madness. What if the man was a lunatic from the start? One who had been pulled of the street to be put to this use? An insane Master meant that she would be unable to ever properly establish the rest of the contract and receive prana from him. It would be the end of her time here, and it would not surprise her if it was true.
Be that as it may, it was effectively out of her hands now, with nothing that she could do but hope for his recovery and defend the place until he healed or she disappeared.
Turing to face the door Saber's frown deepened. The magnitude of her danger was greater than she had anticipated. She was for all intents and purposes without a master, her prana reserves were thin and she was cornered in an enemy stronghold.
Maybe her time on the earth would be even shorter than she had thought...
However it turned out Saber resolved, with a half humorous conviction, that she would at least take the Black Heart with her. The world could only be a better place with one like him dead.
*Scene *
As soon as they had escaped the room and shut the Daemon inside the first thing that Stervin had ordered done was the reinforcement of the secondary ward that closed of the chamber itself. Vaurous's Mystic Nidilus and another sanctioned pyker had rushed to the job along with a pair of priests who knelt behind them. Meanwhile the alarm had been raised and withing three minutes the hall was swarming with stormtroopers and a number of combat Servitors, some carrying heavy weapons. The personal members of Vaurious's retinue were not far behind, the hand picked warriors of the Inquisition adding their own presence to what was quickly becoming a small army of men with their guns trained on the door.
"Damnation! Where is Xirith?" Stervin shouted casting his gaze around the swarming men around him.
"I am.. Huu.. here." Came the crooked voice of the old Inquisitor.
Stervin looked over at where it was coming from, Xirith was leaning against one of the walls as Stormtroopers rushed past him threatening to trample his frail body if he got caught in their path.
Stervin made his way over to him quickly shielding the old man with his power armor from possible danger in the confusion.
"Xirith! We must contain the Daemon at all costs. We may have to banish the prize after all."
Something like fear flashed through the old mans eyes. "I- it- hiiiinnn- it is not yet to that point of danger!" He croaked out with surprising volume. "It was weakened by its struggle against the wards, we can recapture it if we act quickly!
"Xirith we can not endanger this sanctuary for the sake of one Daemon." Stervin intoned. "It has broken loose, it will have possessed its host by now and recovered its strength!"
"Curse you Xirith!" Vaurious shouted coming up from behind them, his bolter held aloft. "Your Daemon is free after all you promised! It is MY retinue that would be doing this recapture you speak of! I will not risk my disciple's in restraining something that should be destroyed!"
"S-shurly you- hiiinn- are -hiiiin- not afraid to risk your men's lives Vaurious? T-This is -hiiinn-what they were groomed for after all."
"I did not groom them to die trying to capture a Daemon for your curiosity! Nothing that it could offer us would be worth the loss of this entire sanctuary!"
Xirith seemed to reel at Vaurious's words, clutching his chest he began to wheeze and choke, starting to go into spasms.
Stervine grabbed him by the shoulder to steady him but Xirith righted himself and corected his breathing. Looking up at Vaurious the old mans eyes burned with a sudden intensity of passion that neither of the other inquisitors had ever seen in him before.
"It-hiii-is no- hiiiii-ordinary- hiiiii-Daemon!" He ground out "T-This- hiii- is the most-hiiii- important summoning – hiiiii- we have ever preformed!" He shouted. With alarming animation the old man began to stamp his foot on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum and shout over and over: "We must capture it! We must! We must! We must! We must!"
"Enough!" Stervin shouted, drowning out Xiriths voice. "Guards!" Two of the Stormtroopers came imidiatly. "Take Xirith to the infirmary. Set him under guard and then come back. Go!"
They bowed and quickly grabbed the now convulsing Inquisitor by the shoulders and ushered him down the hall.
Stervin paused for a moment glancing at the closed door to the chamber now in the clutches of the forces of Chaos and running his eye over the troops assembled outside of it.
"Vaurious, go get your other sword."
"You are not considering doing as he says?" Vaurious shouted.
"Xirith is one of the greatest Daemonologists of the Inquisition. If he is this concerned then I am willing to entertain his wish."
"Xirith is a heretic!" The red robed man shouted, causing a few heads to turn even amongst the highly disciplined Stormtroopers. "You saw how he regarded it! His mind has been corrupted by its influence. Its a Keeper of Secrets!"
"No more Vaurious!" Stervin barked. "Xirith is not the only one to have lost his wits over this thing. A Greater Daemon could not have come forth without a sacrifice. You are in my sanctuary, you will do as I command! Get your other Sword!"
Vaurios stepped back, regarding the Lord Inquisitor in front of him. Unlike himself Stervin was perfectly composed, and despite his blood pounding in his ears his diciplin Training began to reassert itself.
Giving Stervin a stiff little bow he turned and left.
Stervin watched him go wondering over the stability of both the other Inquistors under him. For now that would have to wait.
"Aolis!" He shouted. Once more the hooded figure emerged from the crowd, his assistant giving him a small bow. "My lord?"
"Get the Daemonhosts."
"My lord." Aolis bowed again and turned to follow Vaurious down the hall.
*Scene *
So it was that Vaurious ran down the dark steel halls of the sanctuary towards his personal stash of artifacts cursing Stervin and Xirith internally as he went. He knew it would come to this. A psychic premonition? No mater, he had felt in his bones that something like this would happen, though he had not expected it so soon nor for it to be so direct.
The Daemon had torn through the warded circle without even entering its host and preceded to attack them in a rage, a move that should have been suicidal for it considering that Daemons could not long survive in the mortal realm without a host..
Most disturbing however was the... materialization that it had procured just before it had attacked.
Vaurious checked himself, probing his own mind and body with a psychic jolt. Nothing seemed out of place. Aside from what he had already taken upon himself he could sense no further corruption. Satisfied for the moment he continued his train of thought.
The Creature had called something fourth on its own, not something dark, but rather something that seemed bright, much like it did itself. Even with his long training in resisting the temptations of Slaanesh he had been struck with the beauty of the thing. It was unlike any other Daemon artifact that he had ever seen, a glorious blue and golden vision of perfection that made him feel as though he were in the presence of saint. Truly it was an artifact more befitting of an Angel than a Daemon...
But Vaurious did not believe in Angels.
He had seen to many Daemons to believe in Angels.
Cursing himself internaly for his confusion he ran on. If the Daemon had broken free then they had to act fast to banish or restrain it before it tore a swath through their sanctuary or polluted reality with its presence. A Daemon as strong as that might be able to summon more of its kind even here, and despite what Stervin said he was now convinced that it was indeed a Greater Daemon. Only a keeper of Secrets could procure something so beautiful, and fake purity so well. Perhaps Xirith had sacrifices somone to bring it up. Yes that would explain a lot. How it had held its fake human form for so long, how it had left the circle...
Strange... he could have sworn that it was a raw spirit. So many contradictions...
Luckily if there was one place that they had the proper resources to defeat a powerful warp entity then it was here in the heart of a Deamonhunters fortress.
Inserting his key into the door he turned it and heard it click. With unnecessary force Vaurious yanked the door to his private storage chamber open. Running over to the elevated chests in the far side he made his way over to one of them and unlocked it with a different key. Opening it quickly he snacked a heavy golden amulet out of the small collection of blessed charms and then slammed the lid shut. It would serve to defend him in close combat from the creatures malignant affects on the body.
Moving quickly he made his way over to another box, a slender ornate locker set with purity seals, and drew yet another key out from his person, this one small and golden, shoving it in the lock.
Whispering a chant of purity he turned the key, slowly this time despite his haste, and carefully laid back the lid.
The long blade that lay inside was red and twisted, marked all over its length with sickening patterns that made one wince in pain looking at them. A dark malicious bastardization of an honest weapon, its blade extended four and a half feet out from its hilt and was set with cruel barbs all the way down.
If the power sword that he usually wore was a tool of blessed smiting than this blade was its dark brother. A vile Daemonblade that tore his foes apart with a curse.
Lifting it carefully from its cushion he held it up and gazed down its length. The familiar taint of its presence made itself know to his mind, grating against the barriers that had been employed to subdue it, the purity seal attached to the hilt fluttering as if caught in a strong wind under the pressure of the power it was holding back.
"Rejoice." Vaurious said, his voice dead. "The time has come for you to unleash yourself on your kin once more, heed my will and triumph."
With that Vaurious shut the lid and ran out, leaving the way he had come.
*Scene *
Through a sea of dark smoke he drifted, looking slowly from side to side he tried to pierce the vale of fog that was obscuring everything. Even himself.
Listlessly he wondered where everything was and tried to think about what had happened but he could not. He was unable to look backwards or forwards in time, only now existed and now was fog. No past, no future, only a present fog that followed him wherever he went.
It was perversely calming, a stillness that did not allow for alarm or feeling to enter him yet at the same time felt incredibility wrong, like he was missing everything and yet couldn't define any of what he missed.
He was in pain. Of that he was very sure but he did not know what it meant anymore and could not bring himself to trace the cause of it or do anything to alleviate his situation. He was not even able to think about it for long. He had no mind and he must think...
How long he drifted it was impossible to say, though eventually he was aware of an especially not want feeling coming from somewhere high on himself. It was c- c... it was... co... it was an unwarm feeling that seemed to be wrapped around the part of himself that held his head up. Whatever that was. The tight unwarm feeling made it hard to get air into himself, and he wished that it would go away to the way it must once have been, without the tightness around him.
Now it only got worse. While the restriction in the place below his head was unwarm, an new sensation came, this one along his arms, unlike the other one this one was warm, so warm that it hurt more than he could describe. It lasted for a long while and he shouted while it happened until it was more unwarm again in that spot of him.
Now he was drifting again, but seemed to be drifting with a purpose. He felt that he was surrounded on all sides by other things. Things that were like he was. Or once was. They were not drifting but seemed to do things in a way that was more than simply floating along. They were leading him with them. He was very uncomfortable, in more ways than seemed possible.
He was drifting for a long way. Now approaching some sort of obstruction that opened in front of him and... There was something in front of him. Not the obstruction, or even the others but something else, something that seemed to reach through the mist and assure him of its reality in more than just the usual ways.
If he could he would have tried to get closer to it, as it was he was spared having to try as he was lead steadily and irresistibly forward to it by the others. The feeling got stronger and stronger as he approached. It was a very distinct feeling, unlike anything he had felt while he was like he was now. It made him feel things that he couldn't understand, but he wished that the feeling would increase, and that it would stay now forever.
The tightness was removed from his head holder upper and then he was shoved forward even closer to the clear thing which was now moving towards him in return. It drew nigh, and sudenly he was afraid, the thing was so bright, so strong and so stern that it made him feel very small. He hoped that the thing would not evaporate him with its clearness.
He felt something touch him suddenly felt a jolt of himself jump between the two of them. It was a weird sensation, but it was even weirder when the thing touched him again and pulled something off of him. For a second nothing much happened but he could feel the clear thing getting uncomfortable itself.
Then there was a jolt, something was making a lot of noises, the kind that meant things. It was very loud.
Now it was quite again, something was changing on him, his arms felt uncomfortably warm again, but not quite as warm as they had been before.
Now the clear thing was turning towards him again. It touched him and he flinched but it did not stop touching.
Something Else was there all of the sudden. Something big, and very very clear. It was so clear that he could almost see it in his minds eye. Big and bright and quiet it made him feel smaller than ever.
There was a noise. The clear thing made it. A very important noise, it was not like other noises, this one very definitely meant something but more than that actually was something itself. It was the clear thing itself, the entire clearness all in a sound.
With a warm comfortable rush the clear thing was suddenly a part of him. Not even touching him but actually a part of him. It was an alarming sensation, so much that me found himself making a noise with his head.
The thing was a part of him, and he could feel it doing things, changing thing inside him already. Suddenly something was moving him again. He was on the floor, it was cold and hard, but he did not find it so uncomfortable with the bright thing inside him.
There was more noise now but he did not notice it much, more intent upon what was happening inside him.
Now there was something happening again. He felt the clear thing, which had gone away come back towards him. It was leaning over him and making sounds. Then something was coming out of the clear thing and going into himself and the bright thing making it even brighter and stronger. If it had been changing things inside him before then it was going it much more now, a warm good comfortable feeling that was sweeping over him making everything it touched better.
For a long time he simply lay there feeling himself change more and more, all the little things that seemed wrong or uncomfortable with himself were disappearing.
And then something else changed, the bright thing reached the part of him that seemed to be out of place the most and begun to work there.
Something was happening, things were getting clearer. Parts of himself that he had forgotten existed but knew should exist began to return to him...
The fog was receding.
All at once he suddenly became aware of time. With a jolt of surprise he understood that it had taken a while to get here, and that other things had happened before, not that he could remember them, but now he again understood that they must have happened for him to get here at all, whatever they were. He had not always been here in the presence of the clear thing as he had thought only a little before...
Other things were coming back. He could identify the difference between him body and his mind.
….
He could See! He could see again, his sight had returned to him! He could not make sense of what it was that he was looking at but at least he could get the signals. There was real light as well as mental light! How he had forgotten!
He was so delighted with this that he made another noise and blinked his seeing organs several times. That caught the attention of the clear thing, and he felt it begin to approach him. Looking over he saw it. It was a creature like him, and despite what he felt from it it was actually not very big at all.
It came closer to him and made noise. He couldn't tell what it meant though, and when he made noise back it did not respond.
Slowly, ever so slowly he felt his mind clear. The haze that he had not even been able to identify was lifting, one after another he felt his wits return to him. He could remember words, remember speech and faces. His mind was healing from whatever horrible circumstance had destroyed it. Memory's began to return as well, coming back to his mind in a flood of lost insight. Most of them simple things like what this or that was called, or how to accomplish any number of things, walking, talking, eating thinking it all began to return to him.
With a groan he sat up and looked around. Not far from him was what he had labeld the clear thing in his madness. Now he saw that she was not a thing at all but a fair haired girl with piercing features clad in a strange but elegant combination of armor and cloth that made her a very striking figure.
Seeing him sit up she walked over to him once more kneeling down and looking him in the eye. Her eyes were green clear and sharp and devoid of any judgment or malice. It was a long time since he had seen any eyes with those two quality's absent.
"Master. Can you understand me?" She asked, her voice clear, high and feminine but still strong.
"Y-yes. Yes I can understand you." He made out surprised at the sound of his own voice. His was lower in tone, and did not sound quite right, like maybe some small connection between his brain and his tongue was still not sound.
She smiled slightly at his words. "Very good Master, I was afraid for a long time that you would not heal, but it seems that all is well, or will be soon."
"I- I dont understand... " He mumbled raking his brains as to were he was. Try as he might though most of his memory was only just returning. "What happened?"
The girl gave him a very strange almost pitying look."As for how you came to be in their captivity I do not know. However I believe that you mind was purposely destroyed so that they could manipulate your power."
"Y-yes. I remember now. They had me lobotomized. They were going to do something with me I think."
"The power of Avalon should restore you physical but I do not know how your mind will recover from its shattering."
"You healed me?" He asked looking intently up at the girl before him. He knew what the answer was already, after all he could still feel whatever it was inside him, like a bright golden flame, warming his soul and repairing his body.
"I did. When you were presented to me you were in a deplorable state, do doubt the work of those villains who brought both of us here." She said, adding a measure of venom to the word Villains.
"T-Thank you!" He said "I don't know what I can do, but thank you!"
The girl was silent for a moment looking at him intently. "Think nothing of it." She said at last. "It is my duty to right wrongs."
He was silent for a while in return, not only looking at his savior but feeling her with his mind as well. He was a pyker. He remembered that now, one cursed with a strong connection to the warp that also gave him sense beyond other normal people.
"Your not... human are you?" He asked tenitivly. He did not know why but the answer he knew he would receive filled him with dread. Non humans were very bad. He didn't remember why yet but it was something he was very certain of.
"No. I am a Heroic Spirit, a person who's deeds in life granted them divine assension upon death. I was summoned here, for what purposes I do not know."
He looked at her for a long time. Now that he did he could not but notice that she was very beautiful, with golden blond hair framing an exquisite face set with deep green eyes. He felt her power to, strong and majestic it filled the chamber all around him dispelling fear and doubt.
"Divine Ascension? Then.. your like an Angel?"
"In... some ways yes." She said slowly like she was weighing the comparison.
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad. I don't think you could be so bad, even if something tells me you should be."
The Angle, or Heroic Spirit as it said frowned but he brushed it off. "It does not matter, you feel good, and you healed me. Thank you."
"Right now there is something else that we must speak of. As a Heroic Spirit I can't exist in the natural world for long without a Master. A Magus who will provide me with power by bonding to me through means of an oath."
Their was a noise on the other side of the door. He sudenly became aware of may minds behind it all waiting to get in. Farther away but coming nearer were three other minds. They were horrible, and made his own draw back when he felt them.
"And you want me to be this... Master?" He asked unsure of how he felt. He felt that it would be more confusing if he knew more of what the real world was like, but for now aside from some memory's that were starting to return he felt like a blank slate, nothing was surprising, because he had no expectations.
"You are already my Master, I only need you to confirm it of your own will."
"...And if I do it?"
"We will be bound together as Master and Servant for as long as the the connection is maintained. You will be my anchor to the world, And I will be your shield from all harm. While we are together no harm will befall you so long as I have strength."
There was a noise, not a physical one but a mental one, the Heroic Spirit suddenly turned away to look at the door. He heard it to, and felt it. The three things were getting closer. He could feel them. They wee bound and angry, yet writhing in anticipation to get free.
"We have little time Master. I fear that our enemy's will soon be upon us, they have brought fel creatures with them. If I do not drink of your power I do not know if I will be unable to ward of a determined assault for long."
"Yes... Yes of course. What do you want me to do?" He said suddenly feeling a weight of dread come over him. The only thing between him and the things outside the door was the door itself and the wonderful creature here before him. He did not want the things outside the door to get him. Anything but that.
Rather than answer Saber drew herself up to her full height and took a step back. "I am the Servant Saber." She called out in a majestic voice. "Knight of the Sword, defender of chivalry. I swear upon my sacred soul, I shall be thy guardian and defender so long as you keep the faith. Are you my Master?"
He gulped staring up at her. Standing there looking down on him she seemed unreal. Like a beam of light caught in a pain of glass. I foresee trouble ahead. A small voice in his mind spoke. It was his own. But that did not matter. Even now he could feel the things on the othr side of the door drawing up against it. Men on the other side were preparing to rush in even now. A malevolent presence had invaded the room, he recognized the mind of another pyker. This one so hard and cold a will that for a second he quaked. It was telling him to stay silent. It was calling him a traitor and a heretic. He remembered what those were. It was death to be one, and even worse, damnation.
"Master!" The girl said urgently. "Say it! Accept my Servitude! "
He tried to speak but no sound came out. That mind was menacing him, trying to grind his will into the ground. It was succeeding.
The door burst open with a clang.
The girl wiped around, her eyes flashing like fire she made a strange hand motion like she was holding something he could not see.
There in the door stood, or rather floated, three figures. They were dressed in little but loincloths and what seemed to be a mass of scripted papers that had been wraped around their arms, legs and torsos. From their body's dangled long lengths of chain that hung all the way to the floor and jingled as they moved forward. They hovered in the air like puppets, casting evil gazes at them with red and yellow eyes. Their body's seemed to be disproportionate masses of mussel, extremely thick in the chest and upper body while their legs appeared normal and even emaciated. The air around them seemed to shift and crackle as they floated forward into the room.
He screamed.
"Subdue them both." Came a hard voice.
The creatures seemed to chuckle, a completely silent yet audible noise of pure malevolence that sent deadly chills up his spine.
They pushed forward into the room, what seemed like a mass of guards and heavily armed men closing in behind them with a tall figure in power armor at their front. He froze, that was an Inquisitor. He was the one who had spoken. It was also the one who was stopping his speech.
"Honorless Dastards, feel my blade!" The girl who had called her self saber, the Heroic Spirit shouted it in a voice of thunder. Brandishing her hands over her head like she was carrying a weapon she hurled herself forward at them.
The creatures gave another moan, this one of doubt as she dashed forward stopping in their tracks in sudden hesitation. The next second Saber was upon them.
With a shout of challenge she brought her hands over her head in an arch and swung down hard at the middlemost creature. There was a ring of steel and a flash of sparks as flung its arms up, blocking what seemed like an invisible weapon with its enormous shackles that moored the dangling chains to itself.
The creature next to it snarled and threw its arms around wiping its chains at Saber from the side while the first one counterattacked. Wit ha move like a snake Saber stepped back avoiding both the chains and the creatures fists and then struck out again scoring it on the side with her invisible blade.
It did not so much as grunt. The creature on the right side, silent so far let out a horrible shriek and flung itself forward at Saber, an huge man bearing down on a girl half his height and width. Saber met him head on, slashing at him and opening his torso from the gut to the shoulder and then blocking his wild haymaker with the flat.
With shrieks the other two descended upon her lashing their chains forward and trying to grapple with her.
The pyker watched in awe as the Heroic Spirit beat them back. Dodging and lashing out with her sword Saber seemed to fight with a cold rage and precision that equaled the howling creatures fury in every way, their three way rain of blows was stymied, met with invisible steel, dodged or simply blunted by her silver armor while Saber heaped a torrent of strikes back at them slashing their flesh to bloody ribbons.
Snarling like a rabid dog one of them, bleeding profusely from numerable wounds drew back for a moment and waved its arm in the air around it. What followed was a column of hideous fire that roared and cracked with unnatural intensity. Saber was undaunted. Paying the fire no mind she continued her battle and did not even move when it engulfed her, the flames dancing around her but seemingly unable to touch her. When it passed she stood tall, the blue and gold cloth of her dress not even singed by the inferno she had passed though.
The beast blinked in stupid confusion and was rewarded a moment later when Saber cleaved the arm it had used from its shoulder sending a spray of black ichor from the stump.
But still it came on, fighting with the rage of a rabid beast it rejoined its fellows, extending its hand its own severed arm flew off the floor into it's ready palm and then brought it swinging down like a bludgeon just as Sabers sword was deflecting the chains of its partner.
The beefy arm connected solidly with Sabers head making a disturbingly almost comical smacking noise that could have been mistaken for a gag sound effect. It was anything but. Saber's head spun around and she nearly toppled over from the blow to the head. She regained her balance but the three were upon her in that instant, one wrapping its chains around her legs and pulling it tight while the other drove its fist into her breastplate. She decked the third in the face with her gauntlet as it tried to bite her on the neck, and he heard a sharp snapping noise as its head spun all the way around like an owl.
The others began to lay into her with their fists while she struggled against their grip but it seemed that their strength was equal to hers. He felt his hope begin to fade when she somehow lifted her arm up and drove what he took to be her weapon upward into the one that was hammering her with its fists. It took the invisible blade between the ribs and then she yanked hard to the side severing its spine and freeing the weapon in the same move.
Finally it seemed to feel a wound, giving a bark like cry and pausing in its assault for a moment. She kicked it, bringing her steel boot up and hammering it right in the chest while she wrested with its two brothers, causing it to fly back and crash to the ground.
At first the sight encouraged him but the next moment there was a 'Blam!Blam!Blam!' Through the fresh gap made by the missing creature. The Inquisitor had fired his bolterpistol, the Heroic Spirit unable to dodge while the two monsters held her in place, one on each arm while chains entwined her armored leggings. The three shots hit her clean in the breastplate. The first two seemed to do nothing but the last cracked her armor over her chest and drove the breath from her lungs.
Taking intimidate advantage of the opening the creature with the two good arms held out its free hand. He watched in horror as the limb morphed and shifted, mutating into a enormous talon which it drove into the weak point in her breatplate.
He heard Saber gasped in pain as the limb pierced through, stabbing in what looked like half a foot before catching on the armor and stopping. The next moment the one on her other arm leaned in a bit her right on the side of the neck.
Twisting her hand around Saber managed to get one hand free and used it to elbow the biting one on the face braking his jaw and forcing him to release her neck. It went back to holding he sword arm down while the other grabbed her arm again engulfing her slender limb in its fist.
He watched the scene in horror. Though she till fought with vigor, slowly Sabers struggles were weakening against her remaining two two attackers. When the downed third creature rose from the floor once again, some of its injury's healed he knew it was soon to be over,
"Master!" Saber shouted. Not in fear as he had expected but in command. "You must complete the contract!"
He started. The contract! But what could the contract do now? Surly it was to late for any contract to do enough to save them. And that voice. That iron hard voice still rung in his head: Stay. Stay your tongue. To speak is to become a heretic. To disobey us is death.
"Master! I have sworn my oath to you! I can do no more, you must complete it! Acknowledge my oath!"
"A-AH!" he tried to speak. He really did but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and he realized with a feeling of panic that he did not know what to say.
"Are you my Master!" Saber shouted, as the wretched fiends beat on her armor. She had fallen to the ground by now, they were on top of her pummeling her from every angle, beating her to the floor with their infernal strength.
"Y-YES!" He screamed, shoving aside the foreign presence in his mind with burst of power so hard it hurt him. It took every ounce of effort he had in his mind but he screamed it. "YES I AM YOUR MASTER!"
There was a swooshing noise in his mind as something opened up inside him. Like a great suction he felt his power drain away, passing through him and into the one he had accepted as Servant.
His heart skipped a beat as, for a moment there was no difference. Then like a rushing wind a hale of blue and white sparks gathered around the Heroic Spirit trapped under her three enemy's. The feeling of her power, solid and substantial when he had first meet her suddenly increased beyond his reckoning
"RHHHAAA!"
With an enraged shout Saber shoved out her arms sending two of her opponents rolling away from her with a sudden burst of Strength. The last one kept attacking, perhaps not aware that the tide of the fight had changed.
Saber stood to her feet, heedless of the hammer blows that it was scoring on her, seized it by its own chains and flung it out the door into the crowd of guards behind it eliciting shouts and screams of pain from the human guards.
She was standing upright once again what looked like a halo of sparks surrounding her body as she continued to pull in power from him thought their link. He felt his mind shudder briefly at the strain.
He felt his hopes leap high for a moment and then fade. Stronger though she was Saber was injured.
Panting hard, her legs stretched apart while she seemed to lean on her invisible weapon while a stream of blood ran down her neck and the red fluid gushed from the raw hole in her breastplate. Her face was battered and her armor beaten.
Was I to late?
With surreal motion the three creatures floated back into the air, many of their wounds looking to have healed, the one with the severed arm now sporting what looked like a long barbed tentacle in its place. Striding forward into the room flanked by two other men in carapace armor was the Inquisitor, who held in his hands a brutal looking red blade.
"I wont ask you to give yourself up." Saber breathed. "One such as you I would not spare even on Easterday!"
"Give my self up? To you?" The man barked sounding angered. "Give yourself up to the power of the Emperor!"
With a jerking motion the inquisitor tore a small white wax and paper seal off of the hilt of his sword, which immediately came alive with crimson flames. He charged her, shouting as he did so while she responded in kind, the wicked blade and the invisible one meeting halfway at their highest point. The ring of the two swords was explosive.
With his senses he could feel the power that Saber now possessed, and while she was stronger he could tell somehow that she was not yet at her strongest. And the Inquisitor was also stronger. It was the sword. The foul sword was granting him monstrous strength that approached hers as it was at the moment.
But neither of the other party's knew what he felt. And he could feel their surprise when their opponent did not go flying but rather stopped blade to blade. It did not take long for them to recover from this. Their faces contorted in fury they each drew back their respective swords once more and hammered them together with much the same results.
Drawing back again the two began to sword fight with each other, the Inquisitor hammering and buffeting her with his blade while Saber struck and parried with unmatched strength and grace.
While both party's were skilled it soon became apparent that even with his Daemonblade Saber had the edge in both strength and skill, to say nothing of speed, The inquisitor meanwhile survived because of the longer reach that his great stature afforded him. His his advantage was not enough to win though, and were it to go fairly it looked as though Saber would soon triumph.
But it was not to be. With an unearthly howl the chained creatures returned one of them jumping onto her back while she was distracted and the others bull rushing her from the side. She turned at the last second and beheaded one of them as it came but the other two pounced on her. Tackled from behind and the side and hard pressed at the front Saber could not defend from all at once. The monster seeking to bear her to the ground from behind forced her to compensate by leaning backwards, and when she did it the Inquisitor stabbed her, forcing his sword into the already pierced area of her armor.
With a gasp Saber clutched her side, keeling over as the monstrous chain men mobbed her, beating her into what state he could not see. Seeing her down the Inquisitor gestured behind him and the room was quickly flooded with Guards.
Feeling slack jawed at the defeat of his guardian and last hope he did not even notice the four guards who had charged him until they were in his face.
With a swift blow from the but of one of their weapons the world went black.
*Scene *
Man this story is dark :( This is easily the darkest thing I've ever written and my other story has people getting stabbed in the eye with knives and eaten by snake monsters.
As for the whole Daemon Demon thing I just figured that Saber would just figure that it was an accent thing rather than delve into whether or not there was a difference.
Also I know that In UBW when Saber contracted Rin she got her full power up immediately. I am passing this off with the excuse that Pykers work a little differently. So pleas not that the Saber who just got taken to the ground by an Inquisitor and two Daemonhosts was not at full power.