ulttoanova: Thank you, and you correctly guessed the identity of the two Servants in the cave.
DBoblivion: Where do you want the English Devil King to be? He stayed where he belongs, in England.
Author's note: as always, thank you for your support and feedback.
Monkey Business
By night, the shores of Lake Chūzenji had become peaceful again. The birds had returned to their nests. Apart from some owls and bats, AND Gilgamesh's Vimana, the sky was empty...
Of course, Gilgamesh and Altera were the first to see the monkey army leaving the outskirts of the city of Nikkō. The female version of Attila the Hun, hidden behind her emotionless face, was troubled. She had perfectly sensed Velber's intervention and saw the result. Of course, this 'help' from her allies was not required. The Scourge of God tightened her fingers briefly before forcing herself to relax. Archimedes had acted without her permission, but she could not change anything, what was done was done.
Without looking back, the Queen of the Hun spoke to Gilgamesh, still sitting on his throne.
"We do not intervene, just observe."
The Golden King recovered slightly and nodded.
"I agree. But it doesn't exonerate these two fools from intervening without even warning us! How dare they interfere? The One and Only King will not easily forgive such outrage."
If Altera had been the mocking type, she could have answered that Gilgamesh had been the first to interfere with their current mission: to allow Athena to absorb the power of Sun Wukong. And at least she could be sure that Archimedes had not intervened just to get over his boredom.
Nevertheless, the King of Uruk was right. Far from helping them, this initiative had only further troubled a matter that was far from clear.
Just think of Athena. In fact, whose side was that goddess on?
The Heretics Gods were supposed to be the enemies of the Campiones. However, Athena's behavior towards Goudou Kusanagi was not really that of an enemy...
Having never had a romantic relationship, Altera could not guess what singular 'disease' had contaminated the Greek goddess of reason.
Despite the impending attack of Divine Beasts infected by the corrupting presence of Velber, Ishtar had only one desire... to have a good armchair with a bucket of popcorn at hand!
It must be said that the Mesopotamian goddess attended one of those sweet romantic live show dramas she loved. And the episode of the day of "Athena and Goudou in love" was particularly tasty.
As always, Godou was immediately concerned for the innocent people put at risk by the situation. In this case, humans transformed into monkeys. He questioned his harem to find out if it was possible to free them from the curse.
King Godou, king knight protector of the widow and orphan...
Ishtar laughs gently at this idea, attracting Shirou's surprised look. The redhead obviously didn't understand what fun this situation was. But the Mesopotamian goddess could not help wondering what Saber would have thought of Goudou.
Defender of the widow and orphan... or rather in his case of the pretty widow and the sweet, young, lovable orphan teen girl... For some reason, there were always very pretty girls among the people the Campione was saving.
A good example was his female gang. Moreover the (unofficial) nickname of Goudou was 'King of the Harem', as ridiculous (or even insulting) as this nickname, it reflected the real strength of the Japanese Devil King: a harem of women knights and Hime-Mikos certainly very pretty but especially devoted, courageous and competent, literally ready to die for the man they loved.
Erica Blandelli and Yuri Mariya were the ones who knew the most about Authorities capable of transforming humans. Ishtar listened to their explanations and nodded in approval. There was nothing to add, their erudition was impressive. The two girls spoke alternately, completing each other's explanations. The Italian Knight began by quickly recalling that a Divine Authority was an absolute power, literally the authority that the god had over his domain. And Sun Wukong was the king of monkeys. He turned humans into monkeys and these monkeys obeyed him. Yuri completed the explanation. Within his domain, the Authority of the god was absolute and therefore... irreversible. Only Sun Wukong could deliver his victims.
Erica intervened.
"Of course, if Sun Wukong were killed any trace of his power and Authorities would disappear... his victims would be released. So if Sun Wukong couldn't be convinced to lift the curse, it was enough for Godou to kill the Monkey King to deliver them."
She had said these last words as if it were something as simple as turning the tap in the bathroom...but it reflected the absolute confidence the Italian had in her king.
Goudou thinks for a moment about the implications. But the answer didn't satisfy him. Eventually, he turned to his harem.
"How fight these humans transformed into monkeys? I don't want to kill them but they're still Divine Beasts, which means to fight them I have to be serious... and so I hit hard."
There was a moment of silence Erica, Yuri, Liliana, and Ena exchanged looks, but none of them knew how to neutralize metamorphosed humans without endangering them. Ishtar quietly looked toward Athena. Though silent and showing no emotion, the Greek goddess stood just outside the harem circle... visibly waiting her turn to intervene.
The adorable silver-haired girl spoke in a blank voice, without emotion.
"I've been waiting for that question, King Godou."
The remark surprised the Devil King.
"You were waiting for this very question?"
She nodded.
"Indeed. Just as I decided to help you, I took into account that you would never agree to kill metamorphosed humans and set my strategy accordingly."
"Oh, I see... and you have a strategy to defeat the monkeys without killing them?"
"Death."
The term surprised Godou who almost receded. He frowned remembering his first fight with Athena... a very brief fight by the way... she had kissed him and... he was dead. Fortunately, one of the Ten Avatars (the Ram) gave the Campione the power to return from the dead. The Goddess of the Night used this kiss to instill on him one of her Authority... Death.
"Isn't your Authority supposed to kill? Athena, let me emphasize this. We're looking for a way not to have to kill our opponents."
She shook her head.
"They are Divine Beasts. Like you, they have a strong resistance to magic (1) and my Authority will not be enough to kill them. At most, I can put them into a near death's sleep."
She turned to Godou's harem.
"The problem is your friends and Hakuno-chan and Shirou-san. They are normal humans. If they enter the area affected by Death, they will be affected and far more seriously than the Divine Beasts."
Godou frowned.
"I can protect Erica, Yuri, Lili, and Ena... because they swore loyalty to me. But I can't help Hakuno-chan and Shriou-san." He turned to Ishtar and Ereshkigal. "However, I believe you will be able to protect them."
The Sumerian goddess of death swirled her cape before reaching forward in a pose worthy of a... movie villain.
"Count on me, I can..."
She was interrupted by Ishtar.
"But do they have to come with us? Hakuno is not a fighter, and neither is Yuri-san. Maybe it would be better if they stayed away. And Shirou could stay and watch over them."
The redhead had a slight grimace. He would have preferred to accompany Ishtar, but he understood the reasoning of the Queen of Heaven. Given the situation, leaving Yuri and Hakuno alone would be very dangerous for them.
"Count on me," he simply replied.
Furious that her sister ruined her effect, Ere breathed an exaggerated sigh before crossing her arms on her chest.
"I am a very powerful goddess! Why does everyone listen to my sister when she speaks and not me?"
Obviously, Hakuno ran to comfort the goddess but the others listened to Athena and Ishtar instead.
"I come for victory. I come for the sake of support, for the sake of healing, for the sake of justice, for the sake of good life. Welcome my coming with adoration! O my retainers, I disapprove of death without my approval. The divine protection of the sacred god of war won't recognize even the tranquility of death. Savor the special privilege and suffering of the chosen, together with me…!"
In the spiritual plane in which they existed, the ten medallions symbolizing Verethragna's Avatars began to revolve around the central gold disk. One of them took the top position... it was the Youth Authority.
Taking Erica in his arms, he embraced her infusing this divine power into the body of the blond-haired knight. The young woman began to moan, panting. Suddenly invaded by warmth and near pain pleasure, she trembled, barely managing to stand. Yet she passionately prolonged the kiss, clinging to her 'husband'.
When Goudou released her, the Italian woman's eyes were shining and her hair looked disheveled, she was out of breath and her cheeks were red.
"Oh Godou..." was all the young woman was able to say. But her voice vibrated with a spontaneous eroticism that made Godou blush to the hair.
"Uh... I... I have to take care of Lilianna."
The young Croatian had looked at the scene between her fingers. She swallowed...
"My... my king?"
"Sorry to put you through this."
"I... it's okay, Godou."
As he took her in his arms, she flipped her head back to offer her lips to the Campione... her mind having sunk into one of her usual romantic delusions inspired by Italian cinema.
The power of the Youth Incarnation could be summarized quite simply. Anyone who has sworn loyalty to Godou can temporarily get the physical abilities and the magic resistance of a Campione provided that the Japanese Devil King infuses his breath (or his blood, for that matter) inside the person to be boosted. In clear terms, it was a free time session of passionate kisses with his entire harem...
You know, I think one can add 'Campione' to the list of the plum jobs that every young male could covet.
While Godou was preparing his harem for battle, Athena stopped at the top of a hill. She raised her arms to the sky; her face was transformed by an expression of wild exultation more than unusual for this near-emotionless girl.
An aura as if made of white and purple flames surrounded her figure. Around her, the ground began to tremble, with a slow but powerful tremor. Above her the stars disappeared, obscured by a black shadow hemmed with a violet fluorescent that was spreading in the sky.
At the same time, all the lights were extinguished around. For supernatural darkness devoured every source of light.
Athena deserved her Queen of Night title.
However, it was only the preparation for what she planned to do. The goddess looked down, towards the army of monkeys contaminated by Velber's presence. The Divine Beasts showed no signs of fear, running towards the goddess while shouting and gesticulating ferociously.
The ground trembled even more violently and... strips of darkness came out of the ground to wrap the legs of the goddess, rising towards her hips, covering her chest, her arms... and even her face. It transformed her into a 2D silhouette devoid of depth as if carved in darkness. Only her evil aura permitted her to distinguish herself from the starless sky around her.
Her eyes were nothing but blazes of purple and white fire.
The terrifying goddess made her scythe appear, and then made the gesture of mowing down the army of monkeys. Behind her, a Black Hole formed... a tear of pure darkness... an abyss that opened on nothingness... a flight of magnificent owls with silver feathers used this opening to enter the world of the living.
The night birds, the manifestation of Death, passed just above the monkeys, and... the result was immediate. The metamorphosed humans stopped, often making the gesture of carrying their paws to their faces, opening their mouths wide. Some still had the strength to take some steps, often to retreat. But soon their eyes rolled back and they fell to the ground.
They were not dead, but the shock had plunged them into a deep coma.
Unfortunately, the monkeys invoked by Sun Wukong resisted Athena's Death Authority. They might have succumbed before Velber 'improved' them, but their strength and resistance had been increased.
Exhausted by this brief use of full power divine Authority, the Greek goddess resumed her little girl appearance. Leaning on her scythe, she panted, her forehead covered with sweat.
Furious, the nearest great apes rushed towards Athena, screaming in anger, eager to tear her apart with their claws and fangs.
But the Queen of Night was not out of an answer.
The ground convulsed as several huge stone snakes would blow the hill out. Like the Monkeys of Sun Wukong, they were Divine Beasts invoked by a Heretic God. The fight was immediately very violent. Nevertheless, the monkeys were more numerous. Emerging from the fray, several golden-fur giants converged toward Athena.
The fastest one joined her in a few leaps and raised his arm to give her a terrible blow. But Athena turned her face towards him... her eyes shone with a terrible white and purple glow.
The giant gorilla came to a halt. His feet had turned into stone and the curse was spreading, rising rapidly along his legs... Three seconds later, there was only a hideous statue of a giant gorilla frozen forever in an expression of terror.
She had used her most fearsome Authority: Serpent's Evil Eyes.
Athena held out her hand and several violet rays appeared. Struck in the chest another golden gorilla fell backward... its ribcage had exploded into a smoking crater.
However, faced with so many opponents, it was inevitable that the little goddess would end up being outflanked. One of the monsters suddenly threw himself on her, attacking her in the back. Athena felt its presence and turned around... too late.
However, the only result was a 'clang' sound. The huge kick had just bounced off an unexpected obstacle. Goudou Kusanagi had jumped between Athena and the monkey. He held in his hand Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, the sword of the god Susanoo.
"Sorry for the delay, Athena. But we take care of everything, from now, you can rest."
The goddess simply nodded her head.
"Fine," she said with her usual monotonous voice.
However, as she turned around, a slight redness appeared on her cheeks.
The fight that followed was completely one-sided.
While Kusanagi used his black sword against the golden monkeys, his harem joined him. Erica had turned Cuore di Leone into a spear... and not just any spear... Longinus spear. Pierced by the weapon that had killed Christ, the giant monkeys would die instantly.
Lilianna fought at range. Having transformed Il Maestro into a replica of David's Bow, the Croatian knight fired arrows of destructive power. Flying above the battlefield, she followed Ishtar. Beside the goddess floated Maanna, her bow-boat. The barrel of the strange weapon was loaded with arrows that were fired by the divine weapon as rays of blue light that tracked their targets with ruthless efficiency, exploding on contact.
Ena Sheishuuin wielded Nanatsusaya no Tachi, a legendary seven-blade sword. Staying close to her king, she acted like a living shield, protecting him from all attacks.
Ereshkigal was fighting on the ground, not far from Godou. In one hand she held her spear, Meslamtaea. In the other, she held an oblong metal cage trapping a ball of blue energy.
If necessary, the Queen of the Netherworld invoked duplicates of her red spear, projecting them on her opponents or using the energy stocked in the cage to power her Magecraft, immobilizing her enemies, and poisoning them unless she bombards them with Gandrs.
Even Athena - although Godou asked her to go and rest- had not left the battlefield. She appeared and disappeared, teleporting from one place to another to help her allies. Sometimes the Queen of Night invoked stone snakes. Sometimes she cut an opponent in half with her scythe.
When a great monkey managed to seize the little goddess, she seemed... to explode. Her body fragmented into a dozen owls that flew safely away before gathering... and retransforming into a lovely little girl in school uniform.
Golden-fur gorillas were huge, incredibly strong, and rather fast for their size, able to progress by jumping tens of meters. But they were weakened by Athena's Death Authority, unable to fight against such enemies...
Within minutes, nearly half of the monkeys had already died.
Nevertheless, Athena and Ishtar had made a huge mistake in designing their battle plan. The goddesses had completely forgotten that the monkeys were mere puppets controlled by Velber. And unlike Sun Wukong, the Umbral Star was not trying to kill Goudou Kusanagi... its goal was completely different.
Shirou Emiya used the Reinforcement Magecraft to improve his vision and follow the fight. His arms crossed over his chest, his face stoic, more than ever he looked like a younger version of Archer... Comparison facilitated by the armor he wore, identical to that of the Servant.
But deep down, the redhead was boiling.
Certainly, he understood that someone had to stay to ensure the protection of Yuri Mariya and Hakuno Kishinami. Neither of the two teen girls was a fighter. He even understood that he was the most logical choice. After all, he was not yet fully recovered from his fight against Lancelot but...
In truth, Shirou simply wanted to fight. Being there watching the fight as a spectator irritated him and tested his patience.
Hearing an electronic alarm, Shirou turned around.
Hakuno and Yuri were watching the holographic screens projected by the Regalia. And among the other blue screens, a red screen with a flashing yellow icon had just appeared. You don't have to be a genius to understand that the Moon Cell Automaton was signaling new problems.
Pressing the icon, Hakuno made a radar representation of a nearby landscape appear. Several red dots moved toward the blue dot that represented her.
Quickly reading the information that the photonic computer was transmitting to her, the Sovereign nodded.
"Enemies. To us."
Three monkeys infected by Velber's presence had taken advantage of the diversion of their fellows to approach them.
Shirou breathed in, breathed out.
"Trace One!"
In his hand appeared Archer's large black bow. With nonchalant gestures, he placed a translucent prana arrow on the bow. The projectile broke through the sound barrier, lifting a dust circle around the young man's feet in black Kevlar armor.
The great apes that came out from under the trees had been hit several times by Shirou's arrows. Yes, they were bleeding, but they looked more furious than seriously wounded.
Of course, to eliminate the three monsters in an instant, it was 'only' necessary that Shirou Trace one after the other three Noble Phantasms capable of killing Divine Beasts... ie A-rank ones (as if it was easy for him to Trace this kind of powerful Noble Phantasms, but let's admit it)... then alter them to make arrows before (finally) firing them in rapid succession towards the enemies.
In a children's cartoon, with stupid enemies, it might have worked.
In the real world, Shirou would have barely begun to focus, amassing fantastic amounts of energy, then the giant gorillas would have rushed to attack him and prevent his attack.
At best, he would have had to stop to dodge their blows; losing all the energy accumulated so far, at worst...at worst he would have played sitting duck in the middle of a ball trap!
Shirou had often acted suicidal during the Grail War, but it was out of ignorance, not out of taste. Since his arrival in this world, Luo Hao had trained him in combat. The Chinese martial artist had taught him, among other things, that before using his most powerful attacks, he had to create an opportunity, a window of vulnerability, where the opponent could not counter-attack, or dodge.
And even like that, he only touched Luo Hao once out of three...
As the monkeys ran towards Hakuno, he also began to run to intercept them.
In his hands, Kanshou and Bakuya materialized.
"I am the bone of my sword"
Fortunately, the Moon Cell had become aware of the danger threatening the Sovereign of the Moon. First, an energy shield enveloped her -Yuri was fortunately close enough to be encompassed in the protected area- then something materialized. Crystal cubes and photonic particles swirled to assemble a strange creature.
It was a kind of robot or 'modernist' statue. The creature had no face but a kind of plate lit by a glow. The strange construction- an Ennemy_Program- was an Aggressor armed with a sword. When the strange robot-like thing raised its weapon, invoking other Ennemy_Programs, they were Attack_Programs, the ordinary foot soldiers of the Moon Cell.
Individually, they were not extraordinary opponents, but since there were about twenty of them and the destroyed Attack_Programs were immediately replaced, they considerably slowed down the huge monkeys infected with Velber's presence.
Taking advantage of the diversion, Shirou opted for a Hit and Run tactic, attacking a monkey and then retreating behind the Attack_Programs before starting again later.
"Steel is my body and fire is my blood"
Shirou launched Kanshou and Bakuya. Like sharp boomerangs, twirling on themselves while on a curved trajectory, the two Dao sabers struck a monkey in the back and leg. The monster growled and fell to one knee.
Normally, the Faker would have immediately invoked two new copies of the Married Blades, using the magnetic properties of the blades to remind them to him and hit the Divine Beast again.
Instead, he focused on reciting the third verse of his personal aria.
"I have created over a thousand blades"
Shirou called a weapon stored in Unlimited Bladework and the weapon answered materializing between his fingers. It was a magnificent black steel sword, embodying power and dignity. The only decorations were its gold inlaid guard and the pommel decorated with a pale moonstone-like gem.
It was Durandal: the Peerless sword, a weapon comparable to Caliburn in terms of lineage and power.
Leaping forward, the young man struck a powerful blow. The still destabilized monkey had no time to block and was cut in half, Durandal being an incredibly hard and sharp blade.
One monkey out, two left.
Shirou turned to the two survivors who rushed to him but...
Two rays of light - Maanna's arrows- struck the monsters that disintegrated in the explosion that followed.
Shirou looked up and discovered that Ishtar's bow-boat was floating above him.
Hakuno had not remained inactive throughout the fight, she had called for help.
Far from it, in the Zero Dark (Moon Cell)
"Well, it's not really a success".
The annoying voice of Elizabeth Barthory and her childish reflections were always unpleasant. Only, Archimedes was not annoyed because Lancer had just underlined his failure but by the fact that the limited intelligence of the Lolita dragon-girl did not allow her to understand his actions.
"Lancer, do you know what the experimental method is?"
"Uh no..."
"A scientist learns the properties of a material by creating a battery of tests. Can it scratch steel? Does it break if you hit it with a hammer? Does it float on the water? The experimental method is this, to create a battery of tests that allows knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a thing."
Elizabeth was certainly not a genius, but she was not so stupid as not to understand the allusion.
"So this attack was a test?"
"Of course," replied Caster.
"What's next?"
"Then... I'm very good at creating tools for killing. These Campiones, these goddesses... I would test them to find their flaws and then create something that would kill them."
There was no arrogance in Archimedes' voice. He expressed a simple certainty. If something could die, he could find a way to kill it.
After all, Archimedes had become a hero without ever killing anyone with his own hands, but by creating the first superweapons in history, like the famous mirrors of Archimedes capable of burning a galley. A kind of Antiquity's Oppenheimer (the 'dad' of the atomic bomb (2)) Archimedes was the embodiment of science perverted in military application.
Author's Note: In writing this chapter, I remembered the mocking note of a reader who said that Athena was completely stupid to believe that she could attack King Arthur.
Don't let her appearance fool you. Besides, if you only know the anime, you've never seen her true appearance... and she's not a cute little girl... rather a Lovecraftian nightmare (shiver).
She's the goddess of night and death. She can extinguish all light, plunge the entire planet into an eternal night, and kill the population of a city in mere seconds, she can also manipulate stone at will and has many other powers (she is one of the few Heretic God who have 'stooped' to learn human magic, which further increases her versatility).
In the anime, Athena/Metis is Goudou's second opponent in terms of raw power (after Vrethragna) and she is fourth in the LN.
By the way, did you notice the excellent teamwork between Goudou and Athena in this chapter? While she cast a zone debuff on the battlefield, Goudou buff his harem. Nice combo!
(1) Anyone familiar with Campione! knows that the Devil Kings have an anti-magic protection that forms a barrier on the surface of their skin. To get through that barrier, you have to imbue magic through their mouths. Well... except I've said it several times, the Divine Authorities are not ordinary magic, and therefore the Campiones can be affected without instilling it in them. Except... some Divine Authorities can be stopped by this anti-magic barrier. This is the case of Death, Athena's Authority.
Since there are similar cases, I can empirically suggest a rule. The 'anti-personnel' authorities (focused on a target) are not affected by the anti-magic resistance of the Campiones (and therefore Fate's Servants ones). BUT the Authorities capable of affecting thousands of people, even entire regions, are often ineffective against the Campiones' magic resistance. I suppose (It's just my two coins fought; I found no explanation in Campione!'s official canon) that it is because the power of the gods is in one case concentrated on one target or diluted to affect a large strike zone in the other case.
I assume everyone has noted that I was contradicting myself. When Athena kills Godou, she only focuses Death on him, and yet she had to kiss Godou not to be stopped by the anti-magic barrier. In this case it's probably reflects the lack of versatility of this Authority... If one reads the description of this Authority, one discovers that Athena is in essence the goddess of the harvest. But she is not a nice goddess. She is also the goddess of death. These two functions are not opposed; they are even complementary in Athena's case. She is the reaper (hence her scythe). In fact Athena is the goddess who sprinkles blood on the fields so that the wheat grows... a kind of equivalent exchange, a cycle of life and death. Death is an Authority meant to be used on a large group of people (a community, a city) not on a single individual.
Besides, if you think about it, to kill Goudou, Athena has focused on him a power capable of causing thousands of deaths. Since she's not very expressive, it's hard to see. But the little goddess was probably very impressed to see him come back from the dead to fight her again. Moreover, in the LN, a Heretic God asks her if Godou is a dangerous opponent. Athena answers: "Even killing Godou is not enough to stop him. He refuses to stay dead."
(2) Oppenheimer is famous for quoting a passage from the Bhagavad Gita when he saw the explosion of Trinity (the first atomic bomb); "Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds." (Oppenheimer spoke and wrote fluently Sanskrit). But one of his colleagues was much more factual: "Now we're all sons of bitches," he said.