Purified by Fire, Dancing with Fairies Chapter 30, a fate/stay night fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Purified by Fire, Dancing with Fairies

Chapter 30

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Steel sliced into flesh with a wet slither, eight towering men encased head to knees in gleaming mail stabbing Ayame from all sides with their blades. Ayame gasped in shock and agony as their blades cut into her flesh, puncturing into her organs, and grinding against bone and each other inside of her.

Then they withdrew their blades as one, blood fountaining from Ayame's wounds to splatter against the white cloth and red crosses of their surcoats. Ayame gurgled as she fell to her knees, blood bubbling from her mouth and spilling down her chin and over her clothes, and then she fell forward onto the ground.

"What…is this…?" she thought, as she felt her body grow cold, starting to shake and convulse in a death rattle, blood pooling around it. "Cold…so…cold…"

A bare-chested brute of a man wearing a black cone with eyeholes cut through pulled a lever, and Ayame cried out as the trapdoor under her fell open. The cry was cut short as the noose around her neck was pulled tight, her eyes bulging as she felt her neck pop and crack at the force.

Then the crowd was going wild, men and women alike cheering and yelling with bloodlust dancing in their eyes. There were so many, whether in the crowd gathered around the gallows, dressed in dirty smocks or trousers or plain dresses, or looking on from carriages in the distance and the balconies of the mansions surrounding the square, wearing silk and brocade with powdered wigs on their heads.

Ayame choked and gurgled, struggling to breathe, to force air into her lungs. Her wrists rubbed themselves hoarse to break free of their bonds, to loosen the noose around her neck, but before long her strength began to leave her, and then…

…cold…it was getting…cold…

…her breathing growing weaker and weaker, Ayame hung limply in the air, gently swinging back and forth, as her eyes rolled backward and darkness fell…

Ayame struggled against the gag in her mouth, and fighting the urge to vomit from the stink of the hood forced over her head. Wearing only a dirty smock, the harsh sunlight burned against her exposed skin, as did the scalding metal of the chains binding her wrists overhead, against the stake to which she was tied around the waist.

Filth-encrusted men and women howled and roared across the square around her, wearing only trousers or skirts, goat-faced half-masks hiding their faces. The stands were filled by men and women clad in finery, while red-uniformed men in armor and brandishing pikes stood between the crowds and the stands.

Banners of white emblazoned with red crosses flew in the breeze, the crowds cheering to the words of a bald and fat priest preaching before a pair of thrones, on which sat a man and woman. Both were clad in dark brocades, and bore heavy crowns of jewel-encrusted gold on their heads, while the queen wore a silver half-mask over her face.

Then the priest jabbed a finger in Ayame's direction, the crowd screaming itself hoarse as a bearded knight approached, and poured oil over the firewood piled around the stake's base. Ayame's eyes widened, and she doubled her struggles, and again as the knight tossed away the empty flagon, and took a flaming torch from an attendant.

"In the Name of the Lord." He solemnly said, Ayame not understanding a word, but knowing all too well what was to come.

The torch fell on the oil-soaked wood…

…and Ayame was screaming through the gag in her mouth, as the flames roared and crackled, the stink of smoke and burning flesh – her flesh – filling her nose, and pain…so much pain…

…finally…darkness…

Ayame screamed herself hoarse as she found herself in a padded box in utter darkness, with barely enough space to move. Again and again she threw herself as best she could against her surroundings, but to no avail, barely able if at all to make the coffin's sides shift.

Because that's what it could only be: a coffin.

She'd been buried alive.

An obesely-fat man with grotesque features and a bald head threw Ayame against the bed, before clambering over her. Cloth ripped as he tore her blouse open, followed by her undershirt…

"Like…hell…!" Ayame spat, grabbing the man's wrists before he could the same to her bra. Somehow, against all odds, she'd regained her spirit, pushed as she had been to the one line she would not allow to be crossed against her will.

All the deaths she could possibly die, no matter how agonizing, were as nothing compared to this.

Here, she would stand her ground.

Here, she would make her final stand.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Ayame roared as she fought back, but despite her best, the man on top of her was just too big, and too strong, forcing her hands and arms back against either side of her head.

"Feisty, aren't we?" he gurgled in an obscene voice, snorting like a pig as he leaned down to lick at her face. "I like that. It's just so boring if they just…AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Ayame had swung her knee up, smashing hard against his privates. She smirked in satisfaction…

…and then she was seeing stars, as a meaty fist slammed into her face. She felt her jaw crack, then her nose break at a second blow, and could only reel back as the infuriated would-be rapist rain blow after blow down on her.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" he shouted. "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'M THE RICHEST MAN IN THIS CITY! HELL, I OWN THIS CITY! YOU'RE NOTHING TO ME! NOTHING! YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL I EVEN LET YOU INTO MY BED YOU LITTLE SOW!"

Ayame could only gurgle out incomprehensible sounds as blow after blow fell on her face, her mind lost in a haze of pain and shock. But in such a state, halfway between darkness and light, thought and memory floated freely, and from there hope was born anew.

…I have a gift for you.

…just a name, but one which will be a light to you even in the darkest of places.

…when your need is dire, when all hope seems lost, and no way forwards appears open, just say the name.

Laughing with pig-like snorts, the man reared back from Ayame. "Finally learned your lesson, huh, sow?" he gurgled while fumbling at his waist. "Good, good, because we're just…"

He trailed off as Ayame began to laugh. It hurt, oh by the gods it hurt with her cracked jaw and broken nose, and every so often her laughter had her coughing and spitting out blood, but it felt so good to laugh.

Even a meaty hand grabbing her by the neck and pulling her close with a tight grip wasn't enough to get her to stop. "What's so funny?" the man demanded.

Ayame grinned through the blood and pain, while making sure their eyes met. "One word." She said.

"Huh?"

"Avalon."

Circuits ignited with golden light, burning away filth and corruption just as the Sun's light throws back the dark, while pain and suffering became little more than the fading memories of a nightmare. The would-be rapist barely had time to scream as his flesh was boiled from his bones, and then those two were crumbling away, the evil they were made from as nothing against this dream.

A dream which once dreamt, the dreamer need not wake from, against all the rules of the World.

For that was what it was: Avalon – the Ever-Distant Utopia.

A pillar of golden light erupted high into the sky, blowing back the mists and the clouds, and casting golden light across the ruins and battlefield both. The force of its eruption displaced the surrounding air, which threw Kirei off by the slightest amount.

Not really enough to matter…

…but the cause of it…

"No…" Kirei breathed in shock and disbelief, stepping away and turning to the pillar in growing rage as it lanced high into the sky. "…this…this is impossible!"

Blue light flashed and blasted a hole six-inches across through Kirei's torso, the corrupted priest staggering away several steps from the force of the blast. Despite his heart, part of his spine, and much of the surrounding flesh reduced to dust on the wind, the priest remained standing. Black blood as corrupt as the deepest pit of hell spilled down his clothes, and snarling, Kirei turned towards Xiaolang.

"You enemies of Man are all the same in the end." The assassin spat while wiping blood – red, pure, Human blood – from his chin. "Don't you get it yet?"

Kirei roared, black blood and spittle flying from his mouth as he made to run forward, Black Keys flashing between his fingers…

…and then he staggered back, again barely able to stay on his feet, Black Keys falling with a clatter on the ground as Kirei grabbed at a dagger protruding from his throat. "The Spirit of Man shall not be broken!" Xiaolang shouted as he charged, and swinging low, carved into Kirei's thighs.

Clumsy swings from the priest fell short as he fell to his knees, Xiaolang relentless as he cut the muscles along Kirei's torso. "Begone, enemy of Man!" He solemnly said, while cutting down and into the tendons of Kirei's shoulder. "Perish, and trouble them no more!"

And with a single swing of Xiaolang's sword, Kirei Kotomine's head flew, bouncing along the ground even as his headless corpse toppled backwards, dead at last.

For several long moments afterwards, Xiaolang just stood over Kirei's body, breathing heavily. Then he turned at the sound of clapping and looked to where Lancer and Saber were standing in the distance, looking on. Even further away, the golden light faded, but while the menacing visage of the Black Grail continued to loom overhead, it now seemed…

…diminished…lesser…

"…not bad, assassin." Lancer said as his applause came to an end, and Xiaolang gave a polite bow. Lancer then turned to Saber, who was looking behind them. "What's up, King Arthur?"

"…Ayame…" Saber whispered, as though to himself, before giving a small smile. "I see…so that's how it is. She…she had my scabbard all along…"

"Huh?"

Ayame coughed as she pushed herself out of a pile of rotting and crumbling stone, brushing dust and ash and whatnot off of herself, before repeatedly striking her hat against her leg to clean it of dust. "Well…that was a thing…" she thought before putting her hat back on.

The sound of motion behind her caused Ayame to turn…

"YOU'RE MINE!" Rin screamed as she charged in at a crouch, blinding light shining from several gems held in her hand, and closing in slammed them against Ayame's torso. "DIE!"

There was a blinding flash of light, a thunderous blast of displaced air, and then…

"…I was expecting you to go road roller…but never mind…" Ayame said, standing unmoved and unscratched by a spell that would have been enough to level a skyscraper.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Rin shouted…

…and then a haymaker from Ayame had her spinning away. Staggering to a halt, Rin growled to a building roar, turning to counterattack and throwing a right hook Ayame's way.

Ayame stepped forward, catching Rin by the arm and pulling it back, simultaneously twisted, as though ripping a branch off a tree. Rin's roar turned to a scream of agony as her right shoulder was torn apart, Ayame sneering in contempt.

"That was for my sister, you murderous little bitch!" she spat, before kicking at the back of Rin's leg.

The last of the Tohsaka howled in agony as the force and angle of impact broke her leg bones in three places, and again as she fell to the ground. "And that was for all the people in this temple!" Ayame spat while pinning Rin to the ground with a booted foot onto her back. Then she turned, looking up and away at the towering menace of the Black Grail.

There wasn't really any question what to do.

"Saber," she said softly. "You know what to do, right?"

"…have I ever given you cause to doubt before, Ayame?" the reply came.

"Hmm…no, you haven't…" Ayame said, before her expression faltered. "But…if you do this…then…"

"Yeah…it'll be the end of our path together…" Saber replied. "…but…you won't let that stop you from doing what's right, would you?"

Ayame laughed and shook her head. "No, I won't." she said. "Saber…finish it: Destroy the Holy Grail."

"It will be an honor."

"No…" Rin whispered in a small voice from the ground, and again as she saw golden light build up in the distance, as Excalibur was unsealed, and the Once and Future King prepared to pass judgment. "…no…no…no…you…Ayame…you can't do this…the Grail is the Tohsaka family's birthright…the Tohsaka's family's legacy…our family's duty is to claim it…Ayame…you can't and mustn't destroy it!"

"And I won't," Ayame deadpanned. "Saber will."

"NO!" Rin screamed and sobbed, struggling to break free, as the light built to blinding, and then lanced out towards what stood above. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU JUST CAN'T…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A/N

One or two chapters left to go, and that's including the epilogue.