(The Final Hall)
"As I expected," Gudao remarked as his group approached let another open set of doors after having retracted their steps back to where they had earlier encountered Boudica. "There's at least one last hall. I suppose we'll find the Grail fragment here, and of course the last Avenger."
Standing at the threshold, the three Servants who presented themselves could see that the hall was visibly empty.
Gudao looked at the Count and shrugged as Nursery Rhyme opened her spellbook.
"(Reverse Northern Cross)"
Building on the floor, the energies of her attack floated upward, shredding the air as abruptly a shadow flashed though like a lightning bolt of darkness and landed in front of the group.
"How observant of you Chaldeans," it started but abruptly was forced to dash back upwards as the Southern Cross half of the spell started slicing at his feet. And then after nearly dodging into the descending Northern Cross, the shadow passed back down.
Almost immediately after that, it was forced to avoid the massive explosion of colliding energies by retreating to the furthest edge of the hall.
"You're pretty good," Gudao quipped mockingly while making a hand gesture. The Count, Jeanne, and Nursery Rhyme quickly moved into the hall to avoid being bottlenecked in the doors. "You're stronger than the half with me."
"That's not surprising," the enemy Count of Monte Cristo replied, apparently not exerted at all by the initial activity. "After all, I am a Shadow... The true self."
"Don't make me laugh," the Chaldean group's Count laughed. "I can see you're a shadow, but true self? You're just bloated on the Grail's power."
"Is that so," his shadowy counterpart replied in the same tone of amusement. "Man who regained love, even after becoming a terrible avenger; the Count of Monte Cristo is not an appropriate moniker: Edmond Dantes, I name you."
"You fool !" the other responded in a clear rage. "You have only proven your deficiency; you have not reached the conclusion of the matter of our vengeance."
"Foolishness, Dante. Foolishness... Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything. Let alone..."
Pausing in the middle of a taunting gesture, Dantes quickly moved to the side as his shadowy half abruptly shot a bolt of energy at him. "How predictable," he chuckled. "Now I see what has happened. In trying to break the connection that chained me, this 'Shiki' ended up splitting my Spirit Origin in two. One, you that is, was of course still chained. And so it's obvious why you think yourself the stronger, Grail or not."
"I see," Nursery Rhyme nodded, being unsurprisingly familiar with the Count's story of revenge. "A myth of revenge: a man who cried out for the god of vengeance but became that god in the end."
"But not in the end, yes?" the shadow replied. "An Avenger letting go of revenge? No wonder you're weaker."
"Hahaha, is that what you think, entrapped one? I'm saying you're deluded by your Class Vessel." the Chaldean one chuckled, stepping forward while suggestively making a fist. "Shall we test that theory?"
"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me? Even though you yourself know the font of an Avenger's power, that you've given up what makes an avatar of vengeance?"
"I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer," the solid Avenger said while continuing directly at his shadow-wrapped version with purpose.
"Oh ho ! Then come as close as you like." The shadow accepted the challenge, moving forward himself with a similar purposeful stride.
"Ora !"
The Chaldean Avenger threw a punch as he entered the range for it, but leaning back slightly, rather than counterpunch his opponent instead smoothly kicked at his leg, grazing his shin as the attack was barely within range. "Too slow ! Too slow ! My rage is the ultimate vengeance. Even without my Noble Phantasm, my speed and power far exceed that of yours."
"But we have the same Noble Phantasm. Not much power, but immense speed and precise movement."
The shadow shrugged dismissively. "I wanted to try a little test to find out just how much more powerful my vengeance was compared to yours. Though it appears a test was hardly necessary."
The solid one scoffed back at him. "Test? Is that what you call it, not even ripping my pants?"
"Well, I can understand why you're so stubborn about admitting defeat. Hmph, I suppose I shall rise to your silly provocation and test you a bit more."
Both Avengers struck in nearly the same tempo, but the Chaldeans could see that the one who had traveled with them moved first. As the pair exchanged blows, it seemed that, surprisingly enough, they were both giving as good as they got, and neither was able to actually land a hit, until-
The shadow tried to deflect a right hook arching in to its side, but was a little too slow, resulting in a glancing hit. Someone, probably Nursery Rhyme, clapped as the combatants broke off equally abruptly.
"Shall we compare the speed of our Noble Phantasms?" the Shadow asked with the sneer a little less forceful than before. "(Enfer Château -"
"-d'If)" the solid Avenger activated his own Noble Phantasm without hesitation. The two instantly re-closed the distance and began a mad rush of attacks against one another.
It was only a matter of seconds, like in the previous exchange, but the amount of back-and-forth hardly possible to compare before they separated again.
"You're empty," the shadow said, trying to mask his growing frustration.
"So are you," the other Count replied mockingly.
"But I know the Master you've been relying on has no Command Spells left. Holy Grail activ-"
The shadow froze as a sharp pain pierced though him from behind, rapidly changing into a growing chill that spread across his form like a wasting affliction.
"Hehe. Did the shot hurt?" a new voice spoke up from behind. Abruptly turning with footwork, a punch from a numb fist was delivered to the speaker with almost as much speed as previously, but was blocked outright with a dismissive wave from a slender pointer. "I think I could make something of this, maybe call it something like Cleanser. Hmm, Cupid Cleanser? No wait, it should be Cursed first of all..."
"Your back is open," the paralyzed Avenger's opponent noted while driving a hand into it with a sound less of ripping flesh but rather tearing cloth. "I'll take that Grail, tha-"
Sliding around the falling Avenger, BB cut off the standing one by whipping his wrist with her pointer, sending what looked suspiciously like a heart to the floor and promptly flicking it over towards herself with the same pointer.
"Traitor !" Jeanne Alter roared while whipping out her sword before being floored by a violet beam shot from the tip of BB's pointer.
"You humans are so predictable," BB mused mockingly while taking out a golden cup of some sort and pouring its contents over the Grail.
"I'm not a human," Gudao retorted, though he was actually analyzing Rhyme's odds against the Mooncancer.
"Ah, but you're half-human."
"In the same way you're 100-percent a backup?"
"Well said," BB chuckled, picking up the small Grail fragment left and throwing it over to him; Gudao caught the item easily and inspected what looked like a decorated clasp for a cloak. "What do you think would have happened to an Avenger with a Holy Grail that was already using corrupted energies to make a new Spirit Core of himself?"
"Wait a moment," Rhyme stepped in. "So that Grail was from -"
"Fuyuki, it would seem," Jeanne Alter frowned. "I see; because you yourself have fragments of that same Grail integrated with your body. That was the line that drew you in like a fish, so to speak."
"Exactly," BB sounded excessively triumphant for someone delivering an explanation of events. "It should be safe for me to tell you now, the Grail which your friend Dantes there blackened while being partially summoned in your 'third Grail War' remained so into the fourth and fifth, after which it was taken apart, cleansed and rebuilt in Chaldea. But of course the enemy gained some pieces, with the corruption, after the end of the fourth War."
"So that's why he had the ability to pull me into his messes," Dantes sounded upset.
"Oh and Avenger Jeanne on the ground there too. Though to your benefit, the Grail his fragment came from also linked to the system Chaldea would use, which meant he couldn't do as much as he wanted. A classic example of being overly clever."
"Having recovered this means he can't use it as a vector of attack again?" Gudao asked. "Seems like he didn't guard the uh crown jewels very well."
"Well, I'd say he probably underestimated the value of it since the last time he tried it your friend was unconsciously subverting his plan, and this time around his attempt to manufacture a new Count of Monte Cristo failed because the link drew in the original and uh-"
"Ah, the 'no duplicates' issue caught him."
"Yes, but he probably didn't know I was here as my signature was so weak. And I wasn't trapped in one of those halls. Or rather the new-me was, and it would have worked had I run out of magical energy and perished," Dantes shrugged.
"Ahaha," Rhyme giggled. "In both these cases, Chaldea getting in earlier than anticipated caught him off-guard. Still, understandable why he might have decided to just bail on the enterprise."
"Right. So, uh, this means I should be able to go back now, right? How would I 'go' back anyway, it isn't as though I Rayshifted here."
"Worry not, I have some relevant expertise here," BB started by praising herself. "Currently, it would be accurate to say that your consciousness pseudo-Rayshifted. The connection is via the Grail which exists inside Chaldea and uh, wherever 'here' is. I think once this place falls apart you'll naturally return to your own body."
"What about this?" Gudao held up the fragment in his hand.
"Well, some things return when you do, don't they?"
"I'm not in one of those Coffins though."
"As long as you aren't being watched, it'll probably simply be there with you."
"That might be a surprisingly tough condition..."
l
(Gudao's My Room)
The door swung open quietly. Which is to say it was the one connecting sideways to Gudako's room, rather than the exterior corridor door which was a sliding model.
"Weren't you supposed to be at the Training Grounds now?" Gudako asked upon seeing Sasaki Kojirou watching her fellow Master.
"It wasn't that important," the Saber replied.
"Yeah... not buying it. I know Servants don't need to sleep or eat but you're not helping yourself by forgoing either. Look, get a meal at the cafeteria and sleep for a bit. Er, Sasaku here will take over for you."
"Well I was on my way back..." the Ruler demurred.
"What? Oh, Gil wants your time huh. Fine, I'll handle the watch for now and have someone else rotate with me appropriately." Not interested in fielding refusals, Gudako tried to herd Kojirou towards the door.
"Yeah, that won't be necessary," a new voice entered the discussion. "Catch."
Raising an eyebrow, Sasaku deftly snagged the item sent her way. "Hmm, isn't this-"
"Yes, it's a Grail fragment. Send it to lockup until da Vinci can do the usual," Gudao explained. "How long was I out?"
"Only about a day," Kojirou answered first. "Do you know what happened?"
"That I do. Actually we should probably make a record of this while it's still fresh in my mind."
l
Notes:
Yes, Dantes in this can dodge essentially using i-frames. Him taunting the shadow version in the middle of the other's speech into an attack he dodged is, of course, possible since the shadow has only some of his experiences. After all, it is an earlier version of him, maybe more vengeful but simply not as skilled. Same thing with being able to fight evenly with the shadow, he knew what it would do better than it knew what he would do.
The reference to MoonCancers having class advantage vs Avengers is obviously a bit of a timeline anomaly (heh) as in the standard FGO release sequence, you don't actually get a MoonCancer by the time the Prison Tower event first released. But we've established that there was some cheating in this case. Eh, it's a friend Support BB... the Support List is a mechanic in-universe here, but you generally want your own Servants, and it's hard to ask for ones that you don't have some sort of link with... by the way she looks like the CCC version, not the FGO version, it isn't particularly relevant though.
Gudao's line connecting him being half-human and BB 100-percent backup relates to Fate Extra/CCC but we won't go deep into that... Obviously he heard about it from Mooncell Sasaku, who was planning on summoning BB after all.
If you spotted: MGS, DMC, Jojo, Matrix, and famous hand-in-chest/back moments :)
Customary event wrap-up next time, then we'll move onto, ah yes, an America-based Singularity.