Author's Note: This is my new story, intended to replace Fate Extra: Music of the Spheres which is almost complete.
It is a crossover between:
Fate/ Extra
Fate/ Extella
Heaven Feel
Fate/ Grand Order
Campione!
Titan Quest
(Yes, all that)
Legal warning: This is Fanfiction, the author is an unpaid amateur who writes because he likes to write, and he likes to please those who like to read. The Fate license is the property of Type-Moon. Campione! is the property of Jō Taketsuki. Titan Quest is a game developed by Iron Lore Entertainment.
Summary: Ishtar and Ereshkigal want to save Shirou and Hakuno. For this, they are ready to break a taboo. To avoid punishment, just flee to another world where the Age of God continues... the Campioneverse.
Moonchild
For starters, a little riddle, if you don't mind.
"My name has shaken the Earth. I have built cities and men have bowed down on my path. In my anger, I have ravaged entire countries. No one dared to contradict me and the imploring crowds chanted my praises. My reign lasted for millennia. Yet, if you forget my name, I die. Who am I?"
How long have the gods been around?
The sun-god has existed since the sun existed. The moon god has existed as long as the moon. As for the god of the wind, it was born at the same time as the first earthly atmosphere.
Nevertheless, for countless eons, the gods were nameless and personality-less powers. They were just there... Were they aware that they existed? Were they intelligent? The answer would make no sense...let's just say they weren't human. They were literally unspeakable entities, too different from man to be understandable by him.
Things changed when a monkey watched lightning ignite a tree branch and used it to repel a lion.
Where the animals were content to undergo the will of the gods, simple cogs of the mechanics of the solar system, the first hominoids marveled, seeking to understand. And to understand, they conceptualized, creating language, and with the words "branch", "fire", "stars", "sky" etc... they began to shape the real, becoming the actors of their own destiny.
Centuries followed, becoming millennia.
The monkeys stood up and lost their coat.
Hunters and gatherers became sowers and reapers.
Nomads, they built the first cities... and in these first cities appeared the first temples.
And the humans, with their words, woven myths. And these myths became like nets that captured fractions of the primordial deities. They were the first human gods. Not always humanoid in appearance, however, they were always guided by human emotions. They could be cheaters, liars, thieves... they made war or love, they argued, and sometimes behaved like spoiled children. Because they were the gods of men, they had their qualities and their defects.
You must have found the answer to my little riddle, now...
Yes, the gods die when we forget them.
But, in fact, that's not quite right.
A god never really dies. He's just going back to his legend.
When the Sumerians built the first cities, they also built temples dedicated to the goddess Inanna, the goddess of the moon, love, planet Venus and war. A powerful mother goddess.
And the time passed...
Sumer was conquered by Sargon of Akkad.
The country deserted, and the seas moved.
New cities were built, prospered, were swallowed up by the sands and their very name was forgotten.
For a time, Babylon dominated the land that would one day become Iraq. Inanna, now called Ishtar, was still revered.
Babylon was conquered, liberated, and then conquered again, this time by Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire.
The Persian Empire ruled for a time, and then Iskandar, the Macedonian conqueror, settled in Babylon, restoring the temples of its new capital.
And always the sacred fires shone, and priests sacrificed to the goddess.
Then came the era of monotheism.
Jesus of Nazareth, Mani, preceding Muhammad...
And the temples were deserted, the sacrifices stopped, and even the name of Ishtar was forgotten. There was nothing left but silted ruins and the wind whispering its eternal melody.
Yet Ishtar, forgotten, always existed reduced to a breath, a vague presence waiting for her hour.
When Goetia wanted to cremate the Human Order, the King of the Demons Gods created Singularity, events that changed humanity's past, seeking to retroactively wipe out human history.
Among the Heroes who came to prevent the end of the Human Order, there was an avatar of the goddess Ishtar.
An avatar is the incarnation of a god in the body of a human.
This human must be close enough to the personality of the god and above all must be able to absorb a spark of divinity.
Rin Tohsaka Master of the fifth Fuyuki's Grail War was the perfect container for Ishtar.
Becoming one of the Servants of Ritsuka Fujimaru, a pseudo-Servant in fact, she helped her best, and finally, Goetia was defeated, and the Human Order restored.
Happy End.
The Servant Archer (Ishtar/ Rin Tohsaka) could not return to the Throne of the Heroes... because she was not a Hero. The divine spark was reabsorbed by the remains of the goddess Ishtar, becoming an additional experience... and profoundly changing the fallen goddess.
Rin Tohsaka was literally obsessed with some "moronic redhead idiot". Rin wanted to protect him, to prevent him from becoming an "arrogant, worthless servant sitting on a pile of swords". And this desire was so strong that it was transmitted to the weakened goddess...
Having memories of several distinct versions of Rin Tohsaka, Ishtar knew that Shirou Emiya had survived in most versions of the Grail War. Nevertheless, a version of Shirou sacrificed himself to Trace Excalibur and destroys the Corrupted Grail
Even Ishtar couldn't do anything to change that... Alaya and Gaia prevented her from incarnating at that time (even though she had an excellent receptacle for her incarnation... Rin Tohsaka) and Ishtar could not save Shirou's soul either because she was not a goddess of death.
Another Babylonian goddess had a history similar to that of Ishtar.
Ereshkigal.
Forgotten, reduced to a whisper, she had become a pseudo-Servant to fight against Goetia.
She was also incarnate in Rin Tohsaka... but not the same. This Rin Tohsaka came from an alternative world where she participated in the Moon Holy Grail War.
The parallel with her sister Ishtar was so far-reaching that after the events of the Grand Order, the personality of the fallen goddess had also changed. Like Ishtar, she was now obsessed with a Master that Rin encountered during the War of the Grail: Hakuno Kishinami.
One of the Seraph NPC having miraculously acquired independence and personality, Hakuno had sacrificed herself to prevent the senseless massacre caused by the repetition of the Moon Cell Grail War.
Ereshkigal was a goddess of death. She could save the soul of a mortal... not a Moon Cell program. What was happening on the moon was beyond her responsibility as the Mesopotamian goddess of death.
For thousands of years, the two sisters had hated each other.
One was the incarnation of love and the other was the incarnation of death, what was surprising about that?
Arrogant, and cruel, the Babylonian deities spent their time fighting each other.
Yet their stay in Chaldea had profoundly changed Ishtar and Ereshkigal. When the Goddess of Netherworld asked to meet the Mistress of the Heaven, the audience was immediately granted.
At times, Ereshkigal could be extraordinarily shy. The idea that the goddess of the underworld... a terrifying entity reigning over Arali (1), the sojourn of dust and ash, where rivers are of blood and the glow of a candle would seem as dazzling as the sun... the idea that such a goddess was shy could make you smile.
Sitting on her chair, Ereshkigal clumsily waddled. She took a sip of tea to occupy her hands.
The meeting took place in a strange place... a grey void where there was a metal lace garden table and two chairs. On the other side of a tray with a teapot and a plate of cookies, Ishtar hid an amused smile behind her own cup of tea.
"Why don't you tell me why you came to me? Note that I do not complain about seeing my dear sister, but unlike me, you have a lot of work... even if the number of deaths present in Arali no longer increases since your worship fell into disuse, you have plenty to do with your permanent residents."
Ereshkigal jolted and waved her hand to show that it was not important.
"Oh, you know, it's just a recurring routine. Everyone knows what he has to do... besides it's been centuries since anything happened that's out of the ordinary. Even if I left, I don't think anyone would notice for months" did she end by laughing faintly while playing with one of her twin-tails.
She sighed. "I... I need you to do me a favor... a very big favor." The Queen of the Great Below stiffened and leaned forward, her voice was a tense murmur.
"Can you get into the Moon Cell?"
The next moment, Ereshkigal backed up, sprinkled with tea... spit out by her sister, coughing and crying... yes, even the goddess of love could choke.
"Sorry?"
Wiping her face with her napkin, Ereshkigal repeated:
"Moon Cell, can you get in?"
"Well yes... as a lunar deity, I can materialize in the Moon Cell since it is part of my field... theoretically. But... if this photonic computer is offended by my presence..."
Ishtar didn't finish her sentence. Diminished as she was, the Goddess of Love could not hope to survive more than a few seconds in front of this extraterrestrial creation. Moreover, even an entire divine pantheon, at the time of its splendor, would not have been able to defeat the Moon Cell.
"I'd like you to negotiate with the Moon Cell, you had to go to the Seraph to save Hakuno Kishinami before the Moon Cell erased her."
"Negotiate?"
Ereshkigal agreed strongly.
"Don't worry, I've thought about it a lot. And I know exactly what you have to say to it."
Ishtar crossed her arms, looking at her elder sister with suspicion.
"I mean, it's possible that, at some point, I would... But why would I risk my life for this Hakuno... I don't even know her."
This time it was the turn of the Goddess of Netherworld to hide her smile. Both had the difficult temper of Rin Tohsaka... well not the same Tohsaka... but they didn't just look alike physically. In the end, this tsundere of Rin was too kind for her own good... she even saved Shinji Matou imprisoned inside Angra Mainyu... while this rapist was reaping what he had sown.
"Well, I can do something for you. For example... " Ereshkigal hesitated for a moment "... I have many of your former worshippers in Arali, perhaps you wish I would set them free."
Both versions of Rin Tohsaka were equally stingy... and Ereshkigal's treasure was the souls she held. And she was willing to trade millions of souls for Hakuno's!
The offer really surprised Ishtar who remained for a moment with her mouth open... the embodiment of amazement.
She blushed and turned her head.
"You really care about her."
"Yes..." replied the goddess of death. "I... I love her. I really love her."
Ishtar laughs softly.
"I never thought I'd hear you say that one day."
The two sisters had incredibly similar reactions. It was Ereshkigal's turn to hide her red cheeks by looking away.
"Laugh if you want, but... it's something that... is there... and doesn't want to leave. I have to save Hakuno."
The Mistress of the Heaven raised her hands in an exaggerated act of surrender.
"All right, all right, what a goddess of love I would be if I didn't help my own sister."
Ereshkigal got up so abruptly that her chair fell to the ground, she bounced around the table and squeezed Ishtar on her chest... almost suffocating her.
"Thank you, thank you, and thank you."
When the Goddess of Venus was able to extricate herself from this excess of affection, she coughed and raised an imperious finger, like a teacher preaching to a student.
"But I don't work for free. Never!"
Having regard to the intonation adopted by Ishtar, one might have thought that ' working for free' was a form of highly exotic depravity condemned unanimously by all religions.
Her sister nodded, she was in too good a mood to argue.
"How many souls?"
"One."
"One" repeated Ereshkigal, unable to hide her disbelief.
"But it is not a soul that is in Arali!"
"Oh..."
The gods of different religions had their own paradise and their own hell. And poaching a soul on the land of another god was not exactly a minor offense.
"Let me guess... Shirou Emiya?"
Ishtar nodded and had a tender smile that very few had had the chance to see on the lips of the goddess. There was happiness... and sadness in that smile.
"But... the Shinto pantheon still has many worshippers," continued Ereshkigal. "Enma-Ō and Izanami have not become as weak as we are and they're certainly not going to let me go without reacting!"
Ishtar then had this perfectly evil smile that was at the origin of the nickname of Red Devil sometimes attached to Rin Tohsaka.
"As soon as we have recovered the souls of Hakuno and Shirou, we leave this plane of existence. The Shinto gods will never dare to follow us into a parallel universe.
The Goddess of Venus had a hand gesture to show the gray nothingness that surrounded them.
"And it's not like we're going to miss what's left of the Babylonian pantheon."
After thousands of years without worshippers, the mansions of the gods had disappeared swallowed by nothingness. Even the legions of their servants and minor gods had disappeared.
"I have discovered a parallel world where the Age of Gods has not ended. I've been playing around with the idea of going out there for a while. This is the perfect occasion to regain all our past glory. That could possibly go wrong?"
But the divine sisters had inherited the family curse of the Tohsaka. Both Rin has a tendency of making trivial mistakes at the worst possible time.
Moon Cell, Extraverse, the year 2030
Ishtar materialized in an absurd place.
The ground was covered with a thin layer of water. At random, stone pillars emerged. Some were erected from different angles, others lying down, sometimes even stacked.
The largest pile was under an unfinished crystal cube floating between sky and water. In its center was a golden sphere... the Main Core of the Moon Cell.
Only a few minutes had passed since the fight between Twice H. Pierceman and Hakuno Kishinami.
In the Main Core, Hakuno had just declared her wish and the Grail had only begun her deletion...
Ishtar's arrival did not go unnoticed. A spherical shield formed of translucent hexagons appeared around the Main Core while Enemy-Programs materialized in a whirlwind of computer particles and crystal cubes, encircling the goddess.
The latter smiled with arms crossed, trying to appear as least aggressive as possible.
"I'm not here to attack you."
A translucent window appeared:
"Request: purpose of the visit?"
Ishtar coughed in her fist.
"Moon Cell you make a crude mistake in erasing Hakuno Kishinami."
A new window appeared:
"Define the nature of the error."
"Hakuno Kishinami made the wish to ban any new Moon Cell Holy Grail War, right?"
"Affirmative."
"So, the first Master to have triumphed over the event..." Ishtar showed the stone pillars. Each of them was a monument commemorating the death of a winner of the Grail War, killed by Twice and his Servant Saver. "... is also the last."
"Affirmative. Probability of a new Grail War: 0.001%
"Like all the deities on Earth, I know the real reason for the Moon Cell Grail War: to allow you to find a Master capable of defeating Velber 02 when she frees herself from the Zero Dark."
14,000 years earlier, the Umbral Star had sent Velber 02 to destroy the Earth. The gods had faced the White Titan and had been defeated. Admittedly, the Moon Cell had destroyed the White Titan and imprisoned Velber 02... But nothing was eternal and the monster would eventually free herself from this prison.
"Tell me, Moon Cell, what are your chances of winning without a Master to lead the Heroes you uploaded into the Seraph?"
The gigantic alien supercomputer reflects less than a millionth of a second:
"Probability of victory: approximately 0.021%"
Ishtar nodded.
"Then why do you want to destroy Hakuno?"
"Hakuno Kishinami is a buggy program. Threat of Category 1: data corruption in the Main Core. Standard process: Eradication of the Threat."
That's exactly what Ereshkidal understood. As a Spiritron Hacker, she knows computers much better than Ishtar. A computer always first applied for the program with the highest priority... whatever the consequences.
"I see. But Hakuno is a category one threat only in the Moon Cell Core. When is she outside the Moon Cell?"
A new window appeared showing a hibernation capsule.
"Attempt to connect Master Kishinami to the real Hakuno Kishinami: failure."
"I understand. But if I take Hakuno away from the Moon Cell, there won't be any more problems. Right?"
"Affirmative."
A human would have doubted, taken time to think, hesitated. But the Moon Cell was not a human. With its fantastic computing power, it had understood almost instantly that the Goddess of Venus offered the only solution allowing the Moon Cell Automaton to both protect the Main Core from Hakuno Kishinami and simultaneously prevent the deletion of the Victor.
A whirlpool of purple digital particles and crystal cubes wrapped around Ishtar's hand. Surprised, the goddess realized that she now had a ring decorated with a diamond, a ruby and a sapphire around her finger. As she was about to ask what this ring was for, a second whirlwind came out of the Main Core and entered the ring.
A translucent window appeared.
"Inheritor of the Moon Hakuno Kishinami temporarily stored in Regalia. Instructions for use: Ishtar must lead Hakuno KIshinami out of the Moon Cell and give her the ring called Regalia. Regalia = admin access to the Moon Cell."
Let without words, Ishtar flinches.
It was absolutely amazing to think that the giant computer trusted her to the point... of giving her the main key. No, 'trust' was not the right word. Humans and gods can be (too) confident. A computer checks, compares, and makes decisions based on proven facts. Rin Tohsaka had prevented Angra Mainyu from destroying the world, Ishtar had fought Goetia and the White Titan.
The Mistress of the Heaven had proved it many times. She wasn't an enemy of the Moon Cell.
Fuyuki, Fateverse, 2004
In a large cave under the Ryuudou Temple, on the Mount Enzou, was a large granite plate of 50 meters in diameter on which had been engraved several magical circles. The immense cave was bathed in a dark red light emanating from a kind of repulsive mound of flesh that pulsated with unhealthy life.
It was the Greater Grail, the Cup of Heaven... but corrupted by the presence of Angra Mainyu, it had turned into a womb... about to give birth to All the World's Evil.
Before the Grail of Heaven stood the last chance of humanity.
Wearing a blood-soaked baseball T-shirt with a torn left sleeve that showed Archer's arm... Emiya Shirou was dying. Blades of swords were coming out of several points of his body.
Before entering the cave he had thrown the shroud of Saint Martin, the only thing that prevented Archer's arm from killing him... but he had no other choice... Shirou only chance to save the world required every resource in Archer's arm.
His mind was falling apart, he already didn't really remember the fight against Alter. His brain was stopping. In fact, without the swords coming out of his body, his muscles and bones turning into steel... he would have fallen a long time ago. He was delirious, dreaming of Sakura flowers... of spring that he would never see. He briefly saw a pretty girl's face with long purple hair...
"Trace On!"
The time had come, the time to Trace his last weapon.
In a prana shimmer, the weapon appeared in his hands. A royal two-handed sword with a simple design. The handle was blue. The guard was made of gold, inlaid with blue glass paste, and shaped like a crescent.
Excalibur was a Last Phantasm, an ultimate Noble Phantasm. Normally, Shirou can't Trace this kind of weapon. Trying would have killed him. But it didn't matter anymore. In his present state, nothing could save him.
He raised his arms.
"EXCALIBUR!"
A wave of golden light emerges from the weapon, enveloping the malefic womb, destroying it, and incinerating Angra Mainyu's fetus in an instant.
As the stone vault collapsed, where Shirou Emiya was standing remained only a steel statue entirely made of swords.
Ereshkigal had watched the drama play out from the astral plane. Like Ishtar, she could not materialize. The Age of God was over. Without a Master to provide her with magical energy, the Queen of the Great Below was an anomaly that Alaya and Gaia would have immediately sought to erase.
When Shirou perished, she was ready.
Throwing several of her spears to block the path of Shirou's soul, she generated a metal cage. The artifact illuminated briefly before trapping the globule of light.
Intrigued, Ereshkigal watched for a moment the soul she had just captured.
Normally a soul always appeared to her of a solid color. But this time two colors mingled. The dominant color was blue-green, but an electric blue spot appeared on the surface of the sphere.
A soul was composed of Spiritron. In the soul was stored the memory of an individual, but also his Magical Circuits. By implanting Archer's arm in Shirou, Kirei Kotomine had not only transplanted part of Archer's Magical Circuits to Shirou but also part of his personality.
If Archer had not been an alternative and older version of Shirou Emiya, the young man would have immediately made a rejection and died. Not that this changes much in the long run. Archer was a Servant made of prana and not an individual of flesh and blood. After his Magic Circuits had been forcibly implanted in Shirou, EMIYA's Reality Marble had begun to invade the body of the young redhead, slowly transforming him into a steel statue. "I'm the bone of my sword" and "Steel is my Body"... after all, that was what Archer's aria said.
Shirou's soul had been changed by this experience and even the Goddess of the Netherworld did not know how it would affect him afterward.
Despite several thousand years of existence, it was indeed the first time that Ereshkigal saw the result of the transplantation of the Magic Circuits and the memory of a Servant capable of projecting a Reality Marble on a human who was a younger version of that same Servant.
After all, what was the probability that Dr. Frankenstein would find a time machine?
Tokyo, Campioneverse, 2013
Near Tokyo was a Shinto Shrine associated with the History Compilation Committee the magical association that protected Japan from supernatural threats.
A young Hime-Miko dressed in a Shrine Maiden outfit, with a green hakama and a white chihaya, was busy sweeping away the dead leaves that had accumulated on the stone slabs of the alley lined with stone lanterns that led to the red torii where the staircase leading up from the metropolis ended.
It was a spring morning.
It was still cold, so early in the morning, but in the trees, the birds were singing. In the cloudy sky, the sun shone brightly announcing a hot day.
In the distance, you could hear cars and traffic.
The young Hime-Miko was the perfect Yamato Nadeshiko (classical Japanese good-looking woman) with thigh-length light brown hair tied at the bottom by different-colored ribbons. She has brown eyes and a somewhat fragile yet alluring figure.
She was 17 years old and her name was Yuri Mariya. She was born with powerful healing and divination powers that made her the first Hime-Miko in Japan.
During the last twelve months, she had experienced traumatic experiences. She had in particular suffered the wrath of the goddess Athena in trying to prevent her from seizing the Gorgoneion. Yuri had also been involved in the machinations of the Devil King Voban who had sought to invoke a Heretic God... and many other events.
Each time she had been saved by the 7th Campione Godou Kusanagi. And... she blushed thinking about it... Yuri Mariya had become the second wife of the Campione.
At that moment, a chill shook the young Hime-Miko. She turned south. Her eyes changed color, shining with fluorescent green light. In fact, a green light completely enveloped her now.
It was the power of Spirit Vision.
Yuri Mariya now saw a white marble temple with pearls and ivory steps. She felt the caresses of volutes of incense consumed on altars, the young Hime-Miko heard the melodies of the priests resounding from forgotten eons.
The teen girl started talking, but her voice wasn't hers. Her words were dictated from the Netherworld, she absorbed the sapience that came from the Memories of the Void.
"Ishtar, mother of the gods and of men, the great goddess, the lady of morning and evening, the Fertile in bloom, the one who listens to supplications, the powerful weapon of the gods, the one who kills and creates love, whose color is white. On her altars myrrh and incense, the essence of roses and amber are constantly burning. The altars of Ishtar are studded with white pearls, pink pearls, hyacinths of turquoise and beryl; the altars of Ishtar are covered with garlands of roses, the doves of Ishtar flap wings around them"
Yuri Mariya breathes out, shaking under the effect of revelation but... her body stiffened and the green light began to shine even stronger.
She now saw a terrible place. There was no sky, no star. The ground was made of bone dust. Bones, skulls, and chest cages emerged from this desert, sometimes forming mounds... and this place was dominated by a high mountain... formed by a titanic pile of bones. Yuri heard the moans of the dead wandering for eternity, and a dust-laden wind was whistling in his ears. She could smell the blood.
"Ereshkigal, the Lady of the Great Earth, goddess of the dead and the underworld, Ishtar's eldest sister. Your lapis-lazuli palace is called the Ganzer and your color is red. You consider as your children, those who die too young. In the underworld, you are their mother and they remain close to you. On your shrines of porphyry burn the red flames of the civet and the bergamot. Gallu demons, bull-headed men guard your altars, O Ereshkigal."
The green light went out around Yuri Maiya.
Terrified, the young Hime-Miko fell to her knees. Her features were drawn and her skin had whitened.
"Two heretical gods have extracted themselves from their legends."
Ishtar was not for nothing nicknamed 'the weapon of the gods' according to legend, she had once razed a mountain by firing a single arrow. As for Ereshkigal, she was the very incarnation of death. It was the announcement of great danger.
Getting up with a definite expression, she plunged her hand into the opening of her chihaya and took out a mobile phone.
At the end of a few rings, a sleepy voice replied:
"Moshi-moshi?"
"Godou, this is Yuri... two heretic gods have come down to Earth."
Godou Kusanagi was a Campione, a Devil-King, a man who had killed a god and appropriated his Authorities.
A Campione - a Godslayer- is a supreme ruler.
Since he can kill celestial beings, he can therefore call on the sacrosanct, divine power wielded by the gods.
A Campione - a Godslayer- is a lord.
Since the power to kill a divinity is in his hands, he, therefore, looms over all mortals on Earth.
A Campione - a Godslayer- is a devil
Since all mortals who live on the world, none cans assume the power to match this!
(1) Ancient Mesopotamian Underworld, also known as Kur, Iralla, Kukku, or Kigal (in Sumerian) and Ersetu (in Akkadian).