Fate/Zero Hair: Chapter 3: The Chapter Without Saitama in It, Just like the Manga!
Saber had been initially confident in her ability to defeat the strange abomination. Despite the superior numbers and surprisingly potent strength of the individual copies of the creature, her sword cleaved through them with little resistance.
Initially.
As seconds passed by and she kept cutting, there was a noticeable issue. The tide of enemies was not shrinking. More and more of these beasts seeped into the room. Forever one cut down, three more mocking faces emerged.
"That look on your face, that is exactly what happens when swordsmen face us." One of the creatures said with a smug smirk that remained on its face even when Artoria bifurcated it.
"So does your plan amount to just cutting us down until none of us are left?" Another one of the creatures asked. She stabbed it in the face.
"If so, just give up." Yet another piped up, "Less effort and the same result." It was swiftly slashed in twain.
"You would have me surrender at a mere gimmick?" Saber scoffed, "I've slayed creatures with stronger and stranger powers, beast. You will join their ranks soon enough."
As much as Saber wanted to believe her own words, this time it might simply not be true. The circumstances of the battle hemmed her already meager chances of victory.
First, behind her lay her barely conscious Master, forcing her to remain relatively in place to prevent the monster from capitalizing on using him to defeat her.
Second, even if she was willing to go all out, she simply could not. They were inside an abandoned building with already considerable structural damage from the prior conflict. Her Noble Phantasm might be able to deal with the enemy, but the building would finish off her prone Master.
"Losing your nerve?" One laughed. "Understandable. Your skill isn't bad, you were just unfortunate enough to run into us!"
Inch by inch, the tide pushed closer and closer. Her speed just wasn't enough. Again.
Staying on the defensive merely delayed the inevitable. Thus, she would abandon caution and instead go on the offensive, one maneuver to end the enemy. Hopefully, her Luck stat would pull through.
Saber allowed her Mana to flare, releasing a shockwave as she hopped backwards and grabbed her Master roughly by the collar. The tide of the enemy was pushed back for barely a second before they rushed forward to overwhelm her.
With the speed of a Servant of one of the Knight Classes, she harnessed her Mana once more but this time in the form of a Mana Burst. With a quick but powerful stomp, she shattered the floor where she stood and began to plummet, twisting in the air to cover as much of her Master as she could with her smaller frame. Each subsequent floor smashed into her back.
This would require perfect timing to pull off, so she allowed her Instinct to lead her. With sword in hand, she held onto her Master and waited as she crashed through floor after floor. The enemy was not stagnant, and the horde of monsters leaped down the hole in the floor and fell toward her like a tide of ink. The air surrounding Excalibur disappeared as it began to glow a subtle gold.
One.
Their eyes shined with sadistic delight. The Heroic Spirit Saber would cleanse this affront to the term Hero here. The blade continued to brighten.
Two.
The wind whistled and Saber could sense the incoming ground. If she moved too soon, the attack might miss some of the enemies and the collateral would kill her Master, so she continued to wait. Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory, now shined like a Star on the Earth.
Three.
And with a feeling like a shock through her spine, Artoria knew it was time. With one hand and all the strength she could muster, she slashed her blade in an arc.
"EXCAAAAAALLLLLLIIIIIBBBBUURRRRRRR!"
The myriad of Black Sperms reacted at the same time, but they were currently in free fall. There was nowhere to dodge to even if they could change their direction. Their vision was filled with GOLD and an all-consuming light burned through the tide of Alter Egos and the remains of the building.
A tower of golden light shot into the skyline of Fuyuki city. A light so bright and potent that it made the lights of the city itself seem like the flickering of a dying candle. Or as this event would be known in the future, the Great Fuyuki City Golden Gas Leak.
"Ughhh, my back!" A figure groaned. "Wait a second, I thought I didn't have a back anymore."
The figure looked around at the green grass field that seemed to stretch infinitely in every direction.
"I didn't think it was time for me to incarnate as a God unto the World just yet, especially with that irritating bald shit still running around."
THERE IS NO NEED FOR SUCH MEASURES, IMPOSTER.
The Servant once under the Avenger class, Angra Mainyu (once again shackled to his useless body) turned around pointlessly. The voice seemed to emanate from every direction like surround sound speakers.
WHY DO YOU LOOK AROUND FOR GOD? TO SEE YOUR LORD, MERELY GAZE TOWARDS THE HEAVENS.
And so, he did. It was not an appealing sight. The moon was faintly in the bright blue sky but that wasn't the strange thing. That would be the giant humanoid creature that stood on it like a podium. A formless, eldritch thing that radiated an overwhelming power.
A Mysterious Being with the power to call itself God.
DO YOU GAZE UPON MY FORM WITH WONDER OR TERROR, FALSE GOD?
"The hell do you want." Angra Mainyu wasn't stupid. In his current state as a Servant and not a nascent God, this being was beyond him. He was the ultimate human killer, after all. And this thing was no man. No matter how humanoid it appeared, it radiated an overwhelming feeling of 'otherness'.
FROM YOU? NOTHING. YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE WONDERS FOR ME.
A shiver went down the Daemon King's spine.
"And what exactly. . ."
FOR SO LONG, I RESTRICTED MYSELF TO TRYING TO CONQUER THAT ACCURSED REALM DESPITE THE POTENT OPPOSITION.
GOD began to walk down from the moon, as if stepping down an invisible staircase.
WHEN THE FIST AGAINST GOD DISAPPEARED, I WAS PLEASED THAT A THORN IN MY SIDE HAD DISAPPEARED.
As GOD touched the ground, the world around warped like some kind of abstract painting. The grass blurring together like some kind of dripping green paint, the sky twisting into a texture similar to Van Gogh's paintings.
YOUR SUBSEQUENT INTERVENTION REVEALED THIS STRANGE NEW WORLD TO ME.
GOD tilted his head slightly and despite having no facial features, Angra Mainyu could tell that he had a smug grin on his nonexistent face.
A WORLD RIPE FOR THE PICKING. ALL I NEEDED WAS A WAY TO ENTER, A METHOD YOU SO GRACIALLY HAVE PROVIDED.
"You bastard!" This shit head was stealing his plan. "Come up with your own evil plan!"
LET IT NOT BE KNOWN THAT GOD DOES NOT REWARD THOSE WHO PROVIDE HIM OFFERINGS.
GOD waved its hand and Angra Mainyu found vanishing from this strange pseudo-realm.
WE WILL MEET AGAIN, VILLAGE BOY.
GOD's featureless face gazed down at him with wry amusement.
BE AFRAID, BE VERY MUCH AFRAID.
As Avenger found his conscious fading away, he could only catch a glimpse of a sign that read: "J City Limits."
Merlin loved humans.
Now, individually they were, for the most part, pathetic wastes of space that didn't warrant a second thought. But they were such fascinating creatures.
And so, he observed them. From his Tower in Avalon, his eyes allowed him to see the World as it truly was.
This is why he was the first to notice when a particular iteration of the Fourth Fuyuki Grail War was going wrong.
Seven Servants had been summoned, as was expected. Then things turned for the worse. Several extra Servants had been summoned, each possessing the disturbing skill denoting Foreigners called Existence Outside of the Domain.
While the Fourth Grail War was always a disaster, it was rarely something that warranted intervention by the Counter Force since it tended to wrap itself neatly enough. Things were different now. The World has been introduced to too many threats of a higher caliber, to humanity and the planet. Logically, it should have been pruned.
And yet it remained. Despite the power of the Counter Force, the Universe continued to exist. An Aberration in Panhuman History. A Singularity. The Foreign nature of the incident meant that it was mostly unrelated to Beast I, yet a potent influence as a Threat to Humanity.
He had been lucky. His eyes had glimpsed it just as it had entered the Universe, catching it slightly off guard. Merlin had also been lucky enough to look away before it could pinpoint where he was. Avalon might be greatest protection, but he wasn't going to risk testing it against an Existence Outside of the Domain who could claim the title of the Beast of the End.
Beast VII/S: The Beast of Salvation, 777, or as it addressed itself, GOD.
Frankly, he was hoping Chaldea would stay out of this one. They had faced Beast II and Beast I, but both of those had been victories under unique circumstances against Juvenile Beasts.
Beast VII possessed enough power to skip straight to its Adult Phase. This was something beyond Chaldea's current abilities. Ritsuka and Gudako would surely realize this, right? Who was he kidding, they would plunge headfirst only to realize how royally screwed they were. In fact, they had probably already done so.
"Well, humanity had a pretty good run." Merlin shrugged his shoulders. "Better luck next time, I guess."
AN: I meant to get this up to like 3,000 words before posting. Then I was like, nah. Better something smaller than normal but something, then just giving an unnecessarily elongated chapter. Did you know I started writing this fic when I was 15? Crazy. The great thing about this being mostly a crack idea is that I left a lot of loose details just so I could pick it back up in the future and that is what I am trying to do right now.
How was the fight scene? I don't usually do fight scenes so any advice would be helpful. I had a battle sequence in my head, but writing fights just doesn't come out that well on paper. Plus, Black Sperm vs. Saber was basically more of a Balloon's Tower Defense fight, with Saber trying to stop Black Sperm from reaching her Master and eventually just going, screw it, nuking the whole building. I might just JJK this and make most of the fights be jumpings instead. Fits with the overall atmosphere. Plus, looking back, that is what Lancelot did to Gilgamesh in Ch.2, so it would fit the overall direction of the fic.
Any FGO fan will probably be able to guess what class King is going to be getting (the same as Mothman).
I know that dragging FGO into this is a bit cliché, but FGO has some great story bits (especially the Lostbelt stuff) so connecting that into this cluster-f**k of a 'Singularity' will hopefully help keep me focused on this story at least now and again.
That said, has been sucking a lot so I might be moving over to Spacebattles or QuestionableQuesting in the future. Either way, thank you for sticking with me for so long!
