King of Fakers Chapter 10: The Ocean of the Heart
The King stood in the middle of the church and was drinking a bottle of wine.
He could feel it, Shirou's intense battle against Rider from here and while he would never easily admit it he was worried.
Thankfully for the audience Kotomine was here.
"You could help him you know, lions are actually animals that hunt in groups. You're worried aren't you?" A sneer was on the priests face, the Gilgamesh he knew from the fourth war had changed.
Gilgamesh responded with a snarl but he tried to calm his expression, "Hmph but if I aided him the victory would not be his. Both he and I will be disappointed of such a result. I am not worried for his feelings, rather I just do not wish this treasure of mine to fade away."
"So he is a treasure? Who knew you could express your love so poetically?" Kotomine smiled as he looked away from the King, who had a look of displeasure though a tiny part of him wanted to groan at such a statement. "You've invested time in the boy as well, why don't you help him? I would not stop you if that is your wish."
"You should know better than that. I simply want to watch this play to unfold. If such an amusing character died it'd be a shame, but I would not grieve. As for you, are you okay with letting him do this by his own merits? You won't protect him? You won't scurry around trying to change fate? It'd be a real tragedy if you lost your friend a second time."
The King closed his eyes and fell silent for a moment. "The boy too is like a toy as are you, he entertains me and nothing more. I have no, do not and shall never have friends. Begone."
Kotomine's body began to tremble very lightly to his own shock. This silent threat was sharper and far more intimidating then the anger that The King normally showed.
The animosity exuded was slowly shaking Kotomine to the core...
Despite this the fake priest could not help but pry, even if he was walking into the lion's den.
"You simply do not... want to consider the boy a friend because you cannot let go of a promise from times almost forgotten? Some would see that as rather foolish and even needy..."
The King of Heroes glare leapt from his eyes and he bellowed,
"How dare you speak of something you could never understand!
You who are worse than a puppet!
You who does not bear passion to drive your actions!
You think you can know what I think and feel?
I am the greatest form of humanity and you can't even understand the feelings of a child.
You who cannot embrace love could not even begin to know what friendship is!"
His fist smashed the glass his hand as he brought it to the church's floor, the earth trembled and the floor cracked and the stained glass windows fled the house of God.
The King of Heroes rose and the moon graced him with her light.
The fake priest was stunned and he slowly left the building not saying a single word.
Gilgamesh opened the Gate of Babylon and a seat emerged from it which he threw his body on, he closed his eyes and lifted his head to the moonlight.
He cursed under his breath. Kotomine had touched the most sensitive nerve of the King.
"Not for all eternity shall that worth ever change!"
He was recalling foolish things. Yet just because they were foolish... or even because they were foolish... "they are precious." He whispered to no one but himself in the church where he sat in the centre, with shards of glistening glass at his feet.
"It will never change. I promise. You shall be my only friend, from now to the end... no matter what!
The boy will not be my friend, because I have no need for him when you are here Enkidu.
I will not betray you."
He remembered holding him, his only friend in the world and the only thing that understood him. Perishing from a power beyond his own... a power he had no control over, the Gods, Fate, the will of the world. Whatever you would call it.
The King who had been alone all his life until the day they met, the man who got whatever he wanted... at that moment he had only one wish. Only one truly sincere demand that he would have given anything for. This time and perhaps for the first time in his life he was denied.
The beautiful figure that was the purest wishes of humanity... the soft appearance became hard and slowly his human features began to... drip away. Life left his face and there was no warmth to his touch, cold and almost unmoving.
Returning to the earth he came from, his body began to turn to clay. First his gentle eyes which fell in upon themselves as they crumbled. Enkidu didn't want his only friend to be sad, so even when he lost his sight he continued to smile.
But that too shriveled and was blown away by the breeze of the wind.
And as almost his whole body became clay... he reached out and wrapped what was left of his arms around his friend who had been holding him all the while with tears he could no longer see.
The King then felt something from the remains.
"I don't want to die. I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
I want to live more, I want to live more and have many, many more adventures with you!
The pain... I'm torn. I know I am feeling pain from this body and form this heart!
But... but I can no longer feel it!
Everything that made me, me! It's gone.
Curse you... Curse you humans! I wouldn't feel like this if I hadn't...
...If I hadn't met you. Sorry. I... no I'm glad I met you and everyone of Uruk.
I'm going now. Don't cry. I was merely a tool like the treasures in your fault. I wasn't worth much.
So you have no reason to be sad? Okay?"
As the form wrapped around him began to turn to dust in the wind the King of Heroes declared with his red eyes that he was more than tool, he was a friend, he was irreplaceable as he was and always would be his only companion and he was worth more than the world because of that...
"Not for all eternity shall that worth ever change!" He decreed it, to himself, to his friends and to the world that robbed them. What was left of Enkidu was then swept away... and Gilgamesh could not tell... whether or not he had been able to hear it, those last words and his promise.
Even if Enkidu no longer had ears to hear with... he surely must of heard it with his heart, right?
Though if he was standing before him right now he would surely say something like, "but I don't have a soul!" And laugh with joy plastered on his face...
A sickening squelch and then a burst of red.
From his waist and his mouth dripped life. The Thorn had gone through him completely.
"Any last words Rider? I just have to twist this instrument of mine and then make a clean cut and you'll be split in two. So if you have any wish this Emperor shall hear it."
Rider grimaced, thanks to his battle continuation he wasn't dead or crippled by this.
However retaliating from this position and not being ripped in two or sustaining heavy damage would be near impossible.
"Tch, two on one... and I thought I was having a proper duel. Keh...!"
He dropped his spear. "Fine, you win. Just make it clean."
Neither Shirou nor Saber noticed that as he talked he was moving his right thumb and index finger towards his lips...
"Is that all? Master and Servant exist for a reason. My Master and I were better than you and your pathetic one. As they say in this country, sayonara!"
Rider then whistled with everything he had and smiled.
Saber's blade hit nothing. Rider pulled it from his body and threw it into the distance behind him.
"Did you just materialise-!"
Two pairs of hooves rammed into Saber's face and stomach!
"GAE BOLG!"
Saber already knew the answer to her question and gazed dumbfounded as she fell to the floor and then the spear below her struck through her heart.
"C-cur..ses..."
Rider had materialised his chariot and horses right below his body to throw the attack off due to the angle and then his horses were in range to strike
Shirou grimaced, his breath was in rags and his body was exhausted, this was a fight with a true and complete threat of death. His vision was going black.
"All is fair in love and war. My horses are my comrades in arms, so really it was four versus two the entire time, my master will probably be here in just a few moments. It was interesting but goodbye."
Shirou heard none of Rider's words however. His ears could only hear a cackling... what was left of his sight could only see pieces of the destroyed terrain.
Scorched hands grasped upon him and began to drag him through the muddy earth.
Fire! Flame! Smoke! Ash! Dust!
Shirou could now only see Rider's red eyes. "...I cannot die." He whispered as the arms pulled harder. "I want so much more..." the smoke in his eyes and in his throat intensified.
"I..." The earth opened up and from within the crevice a bubbling black ooze began to submerge his body, burning away his flesh.
The red eyes called to him. They taunted him.
They arose a fear and anger in him, he wanted to blame them for the pain and the charred bodies, the scattered pieces of homes.
"**** this. I'm not going to die and if I am I'll take you to hell! With me!"
Shirou rose from the ooze and a black jacket covered him wrapping him in a warm feeling...
He stood and saw the red eyes come closer, step by step and with each step fear and malevolence grew with every moment...
Shirou woke from his nightmare.
He wasn't going to die, he just wouldn't accept it like this, not now or ever! His brain was beginning to fry. His blood boiled and he could see nothing but the enemy before him.
From the ocean of his memory he recalled something... the day he was saved by his father they were two other people there... he couldn't remember it well but the mind was blocking something out about this revelation...
A shining horror...
And he would recreate it now. Light formed in his arms and began to take the shape of a sword. He charged towards his foe and parried a finishing thrust aimed at Saber.
Raising the half backed sword above his head it shone even brighter. His mind emptied.
A single swing. Light burst forth and the blade seemed to cut across the starry sky.
It had missed Rider completely.
But both Saber and Rider witnessed the light. They could tell that the sword and the attack were nowhere near its true power... but even so a direct hit may have perhaps decided the entire fight.
"My master... rest for just a moment! I will end this! I must thank you... for letting me see such a beautiful thing!"
Saber threw her body forward, ripped Gae Bolg from her chest and threw it into Rider's own shoulder! Then she finished her leap and fell unto Rider's chariot and stole the reigns from the still stunned warrior.
With a powerful pull she threw the horses back... the chariot was about to capsize! Saber wouldn't let this chance slip away. She slammed her fists together like a hammer into the spear in Rider's shoulder, obliterating his shoulder bones as the cursed spear ripped through its own master!
The chariot fell and as it did Saber moved her arms to hold Rider in a full nelson.
She then kicked from the ground and sent both Rider and herself out from the fallen chariot and over the road side... down a steep cliff and all that was below was the ocean.
Splash!
Saber summoned her sword again while both servants floated just above the ocean floor.
Rider's right arm was useless and his back was turned and not to mention the gaping hole in his waist... it was over. The eternal flame rammed down his neck and through his spine!
Saber rose from the water and smiled, then clenched her teeth and placed her left hand over her heart. She did not want to admit it but just a little more and she would have surely died.
She walked to shore and sighed. She would head to Shirou and take him home. She had enough energy to do that she was more than sure.
Except when she got there... he was gone.
Rider's eyes opened. He body had been swept to shore... and all the damage he had taken seemed to be gone, as if it never happened at all.
His gaze turned to see a figure with purplish hair in a perm.
"Archer, leave him." And with those words the wounds on his body reappeared... and the flesh that covered them... began to move away! It began to meld together and then took the form of a beautiful person... with shining green hair.
Pain returned to Rider's every nerve even he could not help but let out a scream!
"So now you know what will happen if you do not assist me. You'll die right here and now without Archer acting as a part of your body. So you, your master and I, we should have a little chat..."
Authors note:
I had originally planned EMIYA to be Archer but I've decided otherwise.
I know this is a short update but hey it's something I guess...
It'll take me sometime to get used to writing in general again, so please bare with me if the next few chapters are not good, any help would be appreciated.