Author's Note: Chapter 99! One more and Chapter 100 people! Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 99: The Eve of the Battle
"I am the Core of my world." First there is time, a beginning, and space, a place to exist. "Iron is my heart. Water is my blood. Wood is my bone. Fire is my pulse. Earth is my muscle." In that space five elements were created, Iron at the centre, followed by a shell of earth filled with water held together with wood and pumped by fire. "I have forged beasts, fish, birds and men." Into those elements life was breathed, forests of Kindling, mountains of materials, forge volcanoes, sea quenching vats and most precious of all, living blades that life was then filled with soul. "I stand neither victorious nor defeated." In that world blade clashes against blade, dulling, sharpening, breaking, fusing, Evolving. "I stand here, Quenching blade, after blade, after blade!" Everything in that world was created by one person, one person who never understood what it means to gamble everything, not until he lost that gamble, and if given the same choice again would make that same gamble again. And now it was inherited by another who learned that same gamble. "Unlimited Blade World!"
They were rapidly running out of time to make their preparations. At the same time they were running out of preparations to make. From Melromarc Dragon knights, from Faubrey Tanks and Planes, from Shieldfreiden the Berserkers, from Siltvelt an demi-human Air Force and Ground force, from Q'Ten Lo Shadows and Shamans and from the other world colonies: Dwarven warriors, Elven Archers, Jewel Magicians, Spirit Casters, and most precious of all: an army of young men and women raised with Heroic Stats. Every country was celebrating, and every country was mourning, for a creature whose existence was more precious than all of them combined would soon awaken, and they would have to lay down their lives in order to catch it.
"Are the Phoenixes really necessary?" Shieldfreiden's latest mouth piece asked begging the question that they were all asking. "The Shield Hero has the Turtle Shikigami..."
"If having the blood of the Directional Beasts in their veins was all that was necessary, Siltvelt and Shieldfreiden both would be full of suitable candidates." Oroko stated tapping one of his fat fingers on the table.
"Which is why we're aiming to capture the Phoenixes, and with luck no sacrifices will be necessary after all." Mirellia stated as she indicated for Raphtalia to pick up where she left off.
"We have successfully transplanted a experimental Sera Lumina hybrid into Melromarcian soil. Like a pump it draws the XP from the environment and scatters it into the area in which it affects." Raphtalia picked several bags and threw them in front of each of the senators. "Plant those around the areas in which the waves are thickest, within their perimeter a bonus field similar to the one here will bloom, once we can capture a directional beast all we need to do is transport it to each area and let it suck up the XP."
"Which leads us back to the previous question." The Shieldfreiden mouth piece again spoke up. "Aside from the dead Spirit Tortoise there are suppose to be three other Directional Beasts. Which ones are the most suitable for our needs?" Each choice that they sort through is another battle they have to fight, another chance lost to save this world. How many chances do they have to make?
"We have an intelligence capsule on the job right now." Raphtalia stated as she let out a sigh.
Maple had sat down in front of Ost inside of the space between the Shield's spirit and Maple's own dreams and was now discussing the matter of great if not unusual importance with the god inside her shield.
"Ho oh hates you." Ost summarised bluntly. "She hates all of you."
"What'd we ever do to her?" Maple asked looking concerned.
"Killed her. Over and over and over again. That is her power, to die and be reborn again."
"Is she like you? Does she have some way to talk to us?" Maple asked looking concerned.
"She's never needed to." Ost stated shaking her head. "This form exists for the purpose of inciting conflict, to make souls gather of their own accord and have them harvest themselves. If Ho oh has appeared it means I am dead, and if I am dead it means that we are beyond the point that merely skimming off of conflict is enough to save this world." Or that someone forcibly woke the Spirit Tortoise up to try and harvest this world. "Even if Ho oh was willing to be reasoned with she has no other choice. These past three months have burned through the barrier that was keeping the worlds separate. Peace was never an option." Ost and Maple simultaneously let out a sigh.
"What can you tell us about the Tiger?" Maple asked looking at Ost curiously.
"Opposite of Ho oh, Byakko is the most docile of the four of us." Ost stated as she let out a sigh. "She's had to interact with humans the least, when you ignore who her neighbours are." Tanya told Maple about the things that Faubrey had tried to do, how dare a sleeping sacred beast who's not hurting anyone get in the way of Faubrey's construction program, the fat pig's sex dungeons won't just materialise out of thin air after all. "I haven't gotten to speak with Byakko since before we went to sleep."
Maple let out a sigh to Ost's comments, they don't even know that they can calm Ouryou down if they combine together the Dragon Quadruplets.
"We'll do our best to subjugate the Phoenixes, as we will with the Tiger and if necessary the dragon." Mirellia stated as she rubbed her temples. "How are the Sacred Gears of the four heroes coming along?"
"Maple's made the most progress out of all of them." Raphtalia stated letting out a sigh. "Tanya's and Katarina's sacred Gears are weaker than Either Kuro's or Maple's. I don't know how Kuro is doing, she locked herself away two weeks ago and hasn't been seen since."
Tanya and Katarina were both meditating, with the Head Smith's help Katarina was able to unlock the Dual Wielder skill, the Twin Spears were little more than sharp pointy sticks with ribbons attached, largely ceremonial weapons but every little bit helps. Both girls had two weapons in hand, in one hand Katarina had the Watery double headed Trident and Sera Lumina combination and in the other her Sitera Destiny Combat Shovel and Gungnir, herself providing the fire root that both weapons ultimately cyclically gave to and took from into and expelling the excess energy before her magical veins burst. Tanya was absorbing the excess fire energy into herself, The Gorgon mask was too dangerous to use around others, processed it through her Earth root, the Unlimited Lost Works and Nether World River Bow combo and then the Spirit Tortoise Bow and Hou Yi combo before taking it back into her herself and expelling the excess energy. A third individual was absorbing the building energy, sucking it away into another place. Before Kuro disappeared into her Sacred Gear's space she planted five swords into the ground at the points and centre of a cross. Excalibur, Laevateinn, Yggdrasil Wood Sword, Kanshou and Byakuya and of course the Forger of the East, a tracing of these five swords were where Kuro was previously before she disappeared.
"Should we go get her?" Katarina looked at the sword formation deeply concerned. "I mean she's been in there for a while."
"No." Tanya stated simply in reply. "But what if she's-" "Allow me then to answer your question with one of my own." Tanya opened her eyes and glared at Katarina. "Were Kuro in any danger would we be able to enter that space to help her?"
"I mean... with our space weapons..."
"So you mean to hit her with that 'Hit The Target' ability that ignores time, space and defence and break her concentration potentially costing her her life?" Tanya asked in a serious tone. She saw Kuro before she went in, saw the intensity of the moment between her and Emiya. "You will do nothing, because Kuro has to do this by herself. If you want to do anything then keep supplying her with the elemental energy she needs to maintain her current state." Tanya ordered in a way that would broke no argument.
"But it's almost time to fight the Phoenixes is all." Katarina explained sounding more worried than before. "Then we will leave without her." Tanya stated in no uncertain terms. With that the two of them quietly returned to meditating.
The Peace meeting continued, arguing between whether they should try to bring down the Phoenixes, restrain the tiger or rely on the dragons. Maple finished her conversation with Ost and joined the other two heroes, as she was wondering how Kuro had been doing the girl in question was suddenly spat out of the sword formation.
"Kuro!" Katarina was the first to break out of the meditation and rush over to Kuro's size. She had grown, her clothes no longer fit her, flakes of metal dotted her skin as if she had been around molten metal unprotected. She was still pretty, in that way you instinctively interpret exotic people as beautiful, even with calloused and scarred skin, the only difference now was that she looked taller and more mature so she no longer looked as childish, as if she had put herself through the same kind of tribulation and Maple had.
"Water..." Kuro let out a harsh voice as she said that. Luckily Maple keeps a few barrels of the stuff safe inside of her Legendary weapon for just such cases of emergency. Kuro ignored the glass and went straight for pitcher with both of her hands gulping the water down greedily.
"Well? Are you going to keep us in suspense about whatever you've made?" Tanya asked looking down at Kuro with blatant suspicion on her features.
"Who do you think you're looking down on?" Kuro flat out demanded. Kuro stood up her feet shaky at first. Then! "Equip!" Metal flowed over Kuro's skin like sand, thousands of tiny blades coming out of her body like sweat and forming plates, a double breasted breast plate, gauntlets of black metal, articulated platemail going all over her body, and a helmet with a clear face plate of transparent metal. True Kuro's face could still be seen, but aside from playing to the girl's vanity she also could see everything in front of her unobstructed. Finally a long flowing coat of Navy Blue scales, like a dragon. Her strongest defensive Phantasm, Ascalon, was used to make this armour, shrunk down and joined together thousands of times over.
"It looks good." Tanya commented looking the armour up and down.
"It should be. I gambled my soul to make it." The others paused in shock.
"So what you've been in back to back tribulations for the past two weeks?" Tanya asked looking confused and concerned.
"Nothing of the like. It's necessary to use a soul as a catalyst to forge a weapon that can reach the gods, my naivety led where it usually does, thinking a half baked fake would do the trick instead of the real thing." Kuro shrugged her shoulders as she smiled bitterly. "You get what you pay for I guess." Kuro put the armour away, which raised another question.
"Where'd your armour go?" Maple asked looking at Kuro oddly. "I didn't see it go into your weapon."
"It did in a way." Kuro stated as she put her hand into another space. "Come on, let me show you my new place."
The place Kuro led the girls to was a world both new and familiar at once. It was like they had just stepped foot in the streets of a city from their world, somewhere in America if she had to guess, all brick works and paved streets. But the plants, the trees, even the air was different. When you bend down to look at the grass it was sharp and shaped funny, like a tiny sword sticking out of the ground, on a nearby staircase a dog was resting, but not one of their world, black wings were sticking out of his back and twitching with idleness, when you feel it's fur it's sharp and needle like. When the leaves were blown off the tree they seemed to cut the wind. Everything in this world was made out of swords!
"Kuro." Tanya should be amazed, and truthfully she was, but more importantly she was stunned. "What did you do!?"
"I already had a reality marble, my Sacred Gear could use it. I then threw in the seven divine magics and all the elemental energy I was building up. The more we have to work with the more powerful the Miracles the Sacred Gears can create and it figured out how to upgrade my reality marble into a true world." Speaking of Miracles Kuro smiled as she saw something approach her. "And we're not alone here either."
The group looked at where Kuro was looking and nearly dropped their jaws in shock. A handsome man with one yellow short spear and one red long spear. A smiling woman of Chinese descent holding a white blade in her hand. A young purple haired man with a stone cross/shield on his arm. Most precious of all, a white haired, golden eyed, bronze skinned man looming over the four of them smiling warmly as he reached out and patted both Kuro and Tanya on the heads like an elder brother.
"So that's..." Tanya stated but Kuro finished for her. "Yeah this is what my brother is supposed to be like." Kuro replied warmly. She didn't know how much she missed seeing him. Kuro could stay here for the rest of her life. But she couldn't. "Come on." Kuro stated as she let out a sigh. "Everyone else must be worried about us."
It was a few short moments until the twelve heroes they had gathered together with their parties were ready to depart from Q'Ten Lo. Atla was happy to see that Kuro was okay, but there was also a look of bitter frustration on her features as she looked her up and down.
"You've got taller." Atla was the Demi-human here, she was the one who was supposed to get taller and fuller as she levelled up not Kuro.
"My niece's body issues besides the point we need to decide on who are going to be fighting against which beast." Trash flipped over a white board with twelve pictures on it.
"If we do have to kill the Phoenix, we'll have to kill it as quickly as possible, because of this we also have to give it as little XP as possible, which will also mean that the Tiger will wake up as soon as the phoenix is dealt with." In the top row, Kuro, Katarina, Rishia, Fohl, Midori and Trash. "The top row will deal with the Phoenix, First and foremost we'll need range attackers, Katarina has a convenient weapon for bypassing the Phoenix's unique defences, and the Gauntlets possess advance knowledge of the phoenix and it's tactics. If we can subjugate the Phoenix we'll need someone who can operate the ship efficiently in order to drag it off, said subjugation will require individuals with skills that can incapacitate the Phoenix." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement to the line up, however Maple had raised her hand.
"I would like to go with the Phoenix group." Maple asked reluctantly.
"There's no need to be shy." Trash stated as he smiled at Maple. "But no. With Fohl the Phoenix group already has a strong defender. But more importantly: you're going to try and talk down the Phoenix, reason with it, perhaps open a line of dialogue between it and Ost?" Trash shook his head. "No. The Phoenix is the least likely of the directional beasts to cooperate, by your own admittance. We can't afford to take the risk." Maple looked down, upset, but she understood.
"This is going to make it harder to get Byakko to cooperate you understand right?" Maple tried one last time to appeal to reason.
"I do." Trash stated feeling Maple's pain. "Which is why you are taking the rest of the heroes with you, and why Tanya is going to be the one leading the mission against the tiger."
"Um... Fitoria has something to say." Filo stated as she reluctantly raised her hand into the air. "Fitoria says Fitoria's Carriage method is that various abilities get enhanced the more material that you have inside of your weapons." A string of notifications went through everyone's vision. 'New Reinforcement Method unlocked' which was followed by various stats and abilities that were increasing in response to the various materials that were going up as well.
"Your abilities must have sky-rocket you walking black hole." Kuro stated in a teasing voice to wit Maple went wide eyed and rounded on her.
"No one wants to hear that from someone who has an entire planet inside of their weapon!" Maple snapped in response.
"Why the change in heart?" Tanya asked looking at Filo suspiciously. "It's a little late now ain't it? Show's almost over and all that."
However Filo only looked more concerned as she relayed Fitoria's words.
"Fitoria says because I've run out of time to change my mind, and because it is far from over." Well that's not ominous at all!
The battle with the Phoenix was a critical weak-point. When it awakens the world's barrier integrity will be at a all time low until the Phoenix is killed and even then it's not guaranteed. During that time the interloper will be able to do as much as she pleases, unless someone is there to stop her and her forces. Fitoria used her Carriage to exit the confines of her world before throwing it off with a kick, outside of that world it's only a restraining bolt holding her back.
"You could've at least left it behind if you weren't going to use it." The creature before her appeared to be human, if Fitoria was human herself she would even say that she was an attractive one, long red hair, green eyes, white skin. She was surrounded by thousands of her equally monstrous subordinates, some looked human, others were far from it. "I can just imagine the look on his face when I ride in on it to claim my new world."
"You can ride me Master!"
"No me!"
"Back both of you worthless curs!"
"Not as surprised as you seem to think." And so Fitoria transformed, not into the mountain of a Filolial as is normally her want to do but rather a giant eagle-esque monster and suddenly the leader of the invading army backed away, a instinctive feeling of fear washing over her. "Ziz is a greater monster than you, Medea." The Queen of all that flies declared in the third person. "And Ziz is going to eat you, Bitch!" And then the monster formerly known as Fitoria snapped open her jaws in four different directions as she prepared to swallow her enemy whole.
A bad sign. After Fitoria had finished with her ventriloquism act with Filo her carriage suddenly appeared before them and latched itself onto Filo.
"What does this mean?" Maple asked as she stroked Filo's head trying to get her to calm down.
"It means exactly what she had said." Trash explained, a hint of defeat in his tone of voice. "After today we are never going to see Fitoria again."
No one spoke. No one said anything as the ship flew through the air.
"She was suffering from Alzheimer's syndrome." Tanya was the one to eventually break the silence. "Whatever she did to herself to prolong her life was failing." Everyone knew that Tanya and Fitoria didn't get along, she made a brief attempt a while back to try and locate the last vassal weapon, then suddenly stopped only claiming that she had wasted her time on a wild goose chase.
"Fitoria's one hell of a wild goose Tanya." Fohl commented bluntly and Rishia was next to him nodding her head with her jaw open.
"There's a statue, somewhere in there." Tanya explained indicating the default Chariot form that Fitoria's, or rather Filo's, weapon had taken. "It appears to be the grave marker of Fitoria's parents, she took it to remember what they looked like, when we're done here we should probably find where they were buried." And maybe bury Fitoria there too, if they can find her. "For now. You're taking the air force with you." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, the ability to fly was pivotal to fighting against a creature that flies as well. "Fitoria's new additions alters our plans a bit, presuming that we can get the two of them to cooperate with us. To begin with let's check to see if the interface tells us what kinds of materials we need for what skills we want to upgrade." And thus the heroes began peering into their interface.
Back at Melromarc castle, a young maid was lazing about ignoring her duties as she stared straight ahead at the horizon. You get use to the pain of the Slave Seal after a while, you actually find yourself enjoying the pain. It tasted like defiance and victory however small. They called her mother the 'unbowed' after her little stunt in Faubrey, holding a peace conference as she and the other dignitaries were being hunted like dogs. A fancy way of saying that she was cowering in the basement drinking tea with her friends while the greatest country in the world burned down and became a husk of its former self. Would they have such a fancy title for Malty for refusing to back away from her parents cruelty? Probably not, at least not until she can claim the throne. All she needs is a opportunity to get her mother's blood and rid herself of this blasted slave seal.
"Gah!" Malty suddenly spat out blood.
Looking down the former princess saw a long black blade had been run through her chest.
"They had the chance. They displayed no interest." As the voice explained that the Blade was pulled out and Malty looked up to see three shadows standing over her. So her mother finally decided to kill her eh? She wasn't any more surprised by that than she was by the fact that she didn't have the balls to do it herself.
"Tell 'mother'." Malty coughed blood as she spoke the word. "That I know, she always thought I was a monster."
"If that's true?" A woman's voice, no doubt one of her mother's countless body doubles. "Then she's correct." And then the foot was stomped down on Malty's head.
The sword's man with the black blade led his two companions to the kitchen, the convenient illusion magic belts they were wearing made it so that they would fit right in. When the swordsman went over to the cutting board he placed some immaterial thing there and used a black knife to begin slowly slicing it into thin sheets. In the mean time the woman threw Malty's headless corpse into the cauldron and lit the flame to cook it.
"How exactly can you eat that?" The third member of their group asked looking slightly revolted.
"Because I'm hungry." The only woman among the group replied. "This bitch has been making us run around and kill her for literally god knows how long."
"We're supposed to be operating incognito though." The third member could only sigh.
"Can't be helped." The swordsman gestured with his knife. "Everyone was having too much fun watching her suffer." The third member pulled out a map of some kind as he looked at the next stop on their plan. "This world's second beast is going to wake up soon." The way he spoke implied he was as disinterested in the development as the death of some nobody half way around the world. "Should we help them?"
"The Phoenix is small fry. The real question is do we stop whatever Reincarnated is on its way over to interfere?" The woman stewing Malty's corpse replied impatiently.
"I say we interfere only if it's too much for them to handle." The third member stated after thinking it over. "First and foremost the phoenix and the tiger both need to die, it's convenient if someone else does it." The other two nodded their heads in agreement, the woman pulling off her bandana revealing white dog ears and white hair as she began eating the stew that she had finished cooking.
"Ugh. I'm going to go stand guard, I've lost my appetite anyway." Saying that the three man team became two as one disposed of the body while the other one methodically destroyed every atom of Malty's soul until there is nothing left.
Review Section:
Angeldude: To be fair she was told that the people being assigned to her was the best of the best. Kind of re-contextualises everything about her game doesn't it?
reinDank: To be fair it's kinda crud at the moment.
RonaldM40196867: Of Which Faction?
Captain Imaginat: You would pace yourself too if one wrong move meant that you could lose your soul in the process. It's not a matter not being satisfied, she just operates on the belief that she needs to not stop growing stronger. They're not.
Nesthor5000: And DND ripped off Tolkien, your point?
coolkid0806: Glad you liked it!
Nightshadegirl: To be fair they're literally in walking distance of a Hot spring.
xerad: She'll be strong enough to chew Medea up and spit out the worlds she broke, then she'll have enough power.