A/N: Sorry to keep you waiting, and sorry this is short. Really not feeling well.
Please read this note, I implore you. Its got some important info at hand. First and foremost...
As ever, reviews are the fuel that keeps me alive. Every bit helps! Your feedback matters! By all means, speak up!
That said, I really am looking forward to chatting with you all...
Second!
I LIIIIIIIIIIIVE~!
Sorry for my absence from the Fate scene as of late, life had me by the throat. Then along came Genshin Impact, to say nothing of my RWBY updates. To top things off, I had to take some time away to checkup on the new Servants brought on by events and lostbelts, one of which involved Morgan and REWRITING three whole chapters -that I haven't yet posted, because frankly they're still very much rough drags at this point!-to match her actual personality.
And well, well, well~! Waiting worked out perfectly~!
Now we'll have a more fleshed out version of her, rather than the hag she was originally intended to be.
Alright! onto your questions, comments and concerns. I'll keep them brief this time, I know you've waited long enough.
Q: Wait, he intended to die?! Did Naruto and Shakespeare plan this whole thing?!
A: All will be revealed in due time.
Q: ...you've found some new villains to use, haven't you?
A: To quote a certain Doctor? Oh, yes. You'll see them...eventually.
Q: Taking liberties with certain Servants, are we...? Heh. I like it.
A: Can't say anymore on that front, save that this war is radically different from the others I've written.
Q: More romance! We demands it!
A: Oi! In the middle of a battle, here! A time for lemons this is not!
Q: You're gonna use HER aren't you?
A: Depends. If you mean who I think you mean, then yes. I'm using them. And her. As well as HIM.
Alright then, I think I've kept you waiting long enough!
As ever, I own no references, not a wit or a one!
And yes! BIG REFERENCE with the title card!
Its all been building to this!
"You know, for a supposed "Holy Grail" you're not very smart, are ya? It was a good plan, I'll give you that. You tried your best; tried to course correct the only way you knew how. But y'see, you made one fatal mistake. You thought I was alone in this. That I had no allies! "Killing" me didn't just make my friends fight harder, though that was a nice benefit. You don't even realize what you've done, do you?"
"What nonsense is this...are you telling me you planned to die?! From the very beginning?!
Lady, I ain't dead. Don't you see? I'm not locked in here with you. No! Not at all!
"YOU'RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH US."
~The Storm Approaches.
Bury the Light
Jeanne couldn't remember the last time she'd felt pain.
Remarkable, wasn't it? As a saint she had seldom feared such. Why would she? Her faith gave her strength; the belief that her suffering was for a greater cause. In her first life she'd placed her trust in a higher power and went to her death without hope of reward or salvation; all in the belief that what she was doing was just that. Just. She had perished without regrets. Her memories were subsequently carved into the Throne; from there, the rest, as they say, was history.
The past has a funny way of coming back to bite you. Because now? Everything ached.
She crashed to the ground, gasping now as a spell slammed into her thigh. Instinct had her springing away despite her latest wound, whirling to parry a wave of dark light that would've stripper her flesh down to the very bones. Just as well; no sooner had she stuck the ground than he went in for the killing blow. Even as she tumbled she whirled and brought her flagpole to bear. No time to counter, much less attack. She could only defend.
Motes of golden light sprang into existence around her as she pushed her Noble Phantasm to the fore.
"Luminosité Eternelle!"
And nothing happened. Her phantasm was denied her by the Grail.
A bolt of dark spellfire snapped her weapon in half to lance through her chest.
Jeanne, formerly Ruler, staggered, not quite comprehending what had just transpired. Wide aqua orbs swung down to regard the gaping tear in her torso. A trembling hand rose, trying in vain to cover the mortal wound dealt to her. She tried to speak, but words failed her. Blood bubbled up past her lips and ran down her chin. She took a single, tottering step forward.
'No.' her mind bleated as she swayed on her feet. 'This isn't real. It can't end like the this! The others...! I have...have to help...!'
Her body betrayed her and legs buckled. She fell.
"That's right." her opponent cooed as she crumpled to the floor. "Struggle before you die. Its no fun when they don't fight back."
"..."
"My, my, you're not even going to scream? How boring."
She tried to rise from where she lay. Tried to refute him. The hole in her chest made that...difficult.
Wit the last of her strength she still scowled up at her killer. A malevolent smile beamed back at her from a handsome visage, framed by a dark eyes and black-on-white hair.
Ashiya Douman. A twisted servant, a wretched Caster...and utterly out of her league. She couldn't hope to beat him as she was now; her support from the Grail severed, her body weakened, soul crumbling like do much dust in her hands. Her mind was willing, but her body was weak. Unlike the others she was too connected to the grail, too vulnerable to its predations. Her mana came not from a Master, but the system itself. And without that system to support her, to provide the magical energy she needed to sustain herself...she was...
So...
...very...
...weak...!
"Look at you, Ruler." his boot ground down on her head, forcing her face into the mud. "Wasted and gasping for air. Such a sad thing to lose faith, isn't it?"
"You need to suffer before you die."
She understood now, the Holy Grail didn't care about her past, her motives, any of that at all. It only cared that she had forsaken her duties as Ruler. As a pure system designed to fulfill a single purpose, a single goal. Nothing more. Nothing more. One might even call it a machine. A living, sentient machine. One that knew how to live, how to hate; how to see its purpose achieved to the exclusion of all else. As such, it could not stand to see its goal thwarted. In another timeline it would've been corrupted and given birth to a great Evil.
Here? That purity made it dangerous.
That purity spawned the Blue Faction, a member of which was currently killing her. The Lord didn't care about her. The Grail didn't care about her. Her spirit origin was falling apart. She would die and return to throne, all her memories stripped away, then sent back to fight anew. She would become a pawn once more. Be turned against her allies like a mindless puppet.
It wasn't fair, wasn't right, wasn't just.
Jeanne grit her teeth.
'No...!'
"Really, I should thank you." Douman's grin was nothing short of twisted. "You've made the grail quite angry. Under normal circumstances, it never would have summoned someone like me, or my...companions. I'm quite grateful. But you don't get to go yet." that boot ground down as he tittered, drawing a cry from the battered blond as she struggled beneath his heel. "When your friends and family are dead and your last desperate hope is in ashes...
Her tormentor leaned closer, lips brushing her ear.
...then you have my permission to die."
Another voice trickled through.
"Oh, I don't think so."
Her head snapped up.
Power rushed through her, vivid and angry.
Caster blinked, mildly amused. "Oh? That's new."
Jeanne's good eye flashed a molten shade of gold. "BURN!"
Her opponent toppled backward with a shriek as their body burst into flame. His boot left her head and Jeanne surged upright; a dark gauntlet slammed into his chin and hurtled him through a building.
In that moment she couldn't say what happened next, not that second, that sliver of time. Her body moved of its own accord, dragging itself upright. Something in her chest, her soul, her very spirit origin shifted. Mana rushed in like a great tide, not from the Great Grail, but another source. entirely. Streaks of ashen white threaded through her once lovely golden hair. Her bloody armor darkened. Flames licked at the corner of her vision but they came not from her foe; they burned forth from within. With it came a strange weightlessness, a purity of purpose she'd not known before.
Never before had she needed something so much and never known until she'd received it.
Laughter ripped through her head, thriving through the connection that had once bound her to the Grail. A new flag manifested before her, joining the new blade belted to her hip. Jeanne caught both, marveling at them in mild wonder. Despite theirs -and her!- apperance, they weren't tainted. They were pure. Just like her.
Her mind felt so much lighter now!
Wide golden eyes gazed upon her new form. "What is this...?"
"Connection reestablished." Wait. "Class change enforced." She knew that voice! "Authority granted; welcome to the war, Avenger."
Jeanne looked left. She looked right. No sign of him. "Is that you, Berserker?! Where are you?!"
"I'm here." his voice was tinny and distant, as though spoke from a great height. "Sorry I can't be there in person."
Her eyes began to burn. "I don't understand.
Right now I'm speaking to you through the Grail." a distant explosion rocked her ears through their link. "Managed to pin her down and commandeer the connection for a second. You're bound to me now. Hope you like your new class. It was the only way I could manage to save ya. Hang in there. Reinforcements are inbound.
A howl of rage pierced the air as Caster thrashed his way free of the rubble. "YOU WRETCH! I'll flay the skin from your bones!"
"I've got my fight, and you have yours! Now get out there and kick his ass!"
Avenger waded in with a snarl.
(.0.0.0.)
...will you not die with honor before your god, Assassin?"
Semiramis coughed and wiped a thin line of blood from her mouth. "What is a god to a nonbeliever?"
Another blow sent her sprawling into the street. "Still a god."
This beast was no god. Just a powerful servant empowered by the Grail. Rider or not, she would crush him.
.
..
...is what she would like to say, but until her Hanging Gardens arrived, she really was terribly outmatched here. She raised defiant golden eyes as a shadow fell over her. This close she could hear the roar of thunder, see the clouds darkening overhead, feel the charge racing through her skin. Yet for all that she met her death with defiance. She was a queen. She would not weep. She would not beg.
Instead, she pushed herself upright. "I will not die here, Ivan!"
A towering fist rose. "...yes. You will."
"On your left, Assassin."
Instinct shrieked a warning; to which Semiramis threw herself to the right and tumbled out of the way. Just as well, too; because a sword hurtled over her head. She whirled in time to see a dark haired man with wild eyes chase it; to behold the flash of sparking steel as it bit through Rider's twisted flesh. Ivan howled in pain as it swept through his left shoulder, parting his bloated body like butter. An arm struck the ground with an awful splat.
"Who goes there?!" he recoiled with a yowl!
"Servant, Caster." a new voice spoke over his screams. "I have responded to my Naruto's summons." those mismatching orbs found hers again. "Retreat, Assassin."
Semiramis scrambled back. It was the eyes that riveted her. One orb an eerie red on black, the other a stark menacing violet. His expression was carved from granite itself; wrought with fury. A lone hand stretched up toward the skies, as though to beseech the heavens. Lightning rippled through the heavens as something massive moved within.
Too late, she realized Rider hadn't been responsible for blotting out the sky at all. Not in the least.
The newcomer swept his lone arm down. As he did, he uttered but a single world.
Ivan the Terrible vanished in a roar of thunder and lightning.
(.0.0.0.)
...farewell."
King Hassan's blade stopped before it could take Atalanta's head.
Held back by a strong hand, it could go no further. Firm fingers clenched, holding the sword at bay.
"Nice sword ya go here." a familiar voice drawled. "Real quality craftsmanship. Mind if I take a look at it?"
Burning blue slits narrowed in confusion, then narrowed. "And you are...?"
Berserker craned her head back, not daring to believe, not willing to hope. And yet when she turned her head...! It was him, yet not him. The voice was right, but the face was all wrong, scarred and twisted, an eyepatch covering one eye, a veritable bounty of swords upon his back. Yet for all that, the smile still set her heard aflutter.
"Naruto...?"
"Not quite." Whiskered cheeks dimpled in a small smile. "I'm not your Naruto; just doing an old friend a favor. Call me...Saber."
"Nonsense!" Assassin scoffed. "There cannot be another!"
"Does it really matter? I am me." the peal of laughter that followed was intimately known to her ears. "Lets just say a mutual friend sent me. I hope you enjoyed bullying them." Burning eyes narrowed to absolute slits. "I hope you had a reeeaaal good time. Did you enjoy yourself?" clawed digits clenched, uncaring as the steel burned into his palm. "Did you like listening to them shout and scream?" around them, their air boiled with light. "I hope you did. Because now?"
Their free fist rose, and behind them, an army ROARED.
Saber!Naruto slammed his head against Assassin's.
"Its your turn!"
A/N: Had this planned from the beginning, but I'm sure this'll shock people all the same.
Casltevania...just gave me a kick to write faster.
So here we are. Some may live. Some may die. Won't say who, save that we're on the path to the to the true ending foiks...and its gonna be one helluva race to the finish.
Thanks for joining me on this wild ride, and I hope to entertain you all for many more yet to come.
As ever, reviews keep me alive. I literally. Cannot. Write. Without them.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly?
Alas, NO previews this time!
We're in the endgame!
...oh, who am I kidding.
(Preview)
Shakespeare flung his arms wide. "Behold! My magnum opus!"
Lancer of Blue didn't hear him. She was to busy screaming in agony.
"Daddy!"
"Ack! Down, Jackie! Down!"
"DAMN! YOU! BERSERKER! What have you done?! You've broken Heaven's Feel! You've ruined everything!"
Berserker!Naruto hummed. "Aw, is the widdle Grail angry...?"
"Now, I'm going to take that precious order you're so found of, and I'm going to crush it.
That light you speak so highly of? I'm about to bury it!
Morgan recoiled. "No! Not you! Anyone but you!"
"CLARENT...!"
"EXXXXXXXXXXX...!
"No, no, no! I won't let it end like this!"
"Just give it up. You've lost."
"NEVER!"
"I will protect everyone!"
R&R~!
~Nz.
