Disclaimer: These are works of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by any of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. Fate Grand Order and all the franchises and series associated with it, are owned by Kinoko Nasu, Notes Co., Ltd. and their affiliates. Similarly, Fire Emblem Heroes is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and their affiliates.
I DO NOT OWN THESE FRANCHISES.
Sister Fanfic: Serious Side Reels: A Grand Order of Heroes Sidestories
A town in flames.
That was what many Askarians in the remote villages near the outskirts of the Embla/Askr border woke up in the early dawn. Many villagers roasted alive while still in their beds, many of the ones who managed to escape the flames were still in their soot stained undergarments.
Those that managed to escape that grizzly end were met with the sound of a loud 'pop' before falling to the ground, bleeding out from the newly made bullet wound on their body.
The last thing many of these innocent villagers heard before dying were the sounds of their frighteningly cute murderers as they opened fire on their family, friends and neighbors.
"Nobuuu!"
By the time the Order of Heroes was notified of the attack, 3 villages had been razed to the ground. The aggressors made no effort to conceal their presence and a tidal wave of chibi nobus of all sizes, colors, and powers charged at the reinforcements.
0-0-0
"It hurts…" a young boy whined while he held his bleeding leg. He was currently being tended to by a young red haired princess from Hoshido after the Chibi Nobus in the area had been eradicated. Sakura was a timid girl, however, when medical emergencies occurred that timidness was forgotten and in its place was a professional healer who did her best to soothe her patients, like the boy she was currently helping at the moment.
Sakura never liked war, she knew that defending her country was necessary but she was never one to enjoy the pain and suffering of the innocents. Which was why she took the path of healing, to help those who were in need of saving.
Unfortunately, this profession had forced her to see the worst humanity can do to each other, but she would never abandon her patients just because of a disturbing scene.
"I know sweetie I know, but I need you to be a strong boy for me so I can heal you, can you be a strong boy?"
The boy sniffed but nodded, to which Sakura just gave him a pleasant smile.
It has been years since she chose her path, but she never would have imagined that she would be able to treat wounds the way she was now. And it's all thanks to Lady Nightingale's teachings.
While normally she couldn't use her Heal spell on a gun or arrow wound without removing the projectile, she and the boy were lucky in that the bullet had pierced through the boy's leg and only left a hole in the leg.
She brought out her alcohol contained and poured some over a cloth and immediately went in to clean the wound. The boy screamed in pain, but Sakura gave him reassuring and comforting words as she cleaned the dirt around the wound before she proceeded to pull out some clean bandages and wrap them tightly, but not too tightly, around the now clean wound.
The bullet wound had shattered some bones, so [Heal] would not be able to safely mend those injuries without making it worse. Fortunately for him, the bleeding has stopped, and he will be able to live long enough to have someone from Chaldea look him over and fix him.
Sakura was too busy healing the boy that she failed to notice the ominous figure around the corner, aiming its rifle at her head.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of a bullet being loaded into its chamber. She turned around and saw one of the little imps in military uniform who were responsible for this mess. The thing stood at 3 feet tall, with its characteristic black military outfit.
It really did deserve its name of "Chibi Nobu" as it was the spitting image of Nobunaga, with the only exception being the soulless white eye staring at her. She froze when she noticed the barrel of the rifle in its tiny hands pointed straight at her. The sight would have been more comical and cute to Sakura had she not been on the creature's sights.
The muzzle flashed, and she knew it was too late. Her body was too slow to react, all she could do was stare at the lifeless, blank eyes of the creature as it unsympathetically fired its weapon at a healer.
Herself.
Her breath hitched as the bullet drew closer, and closer to her, but before it could land between her eyes, as a red blur flew from the side of her peripheral vision and deflected the bullet, which had buried itself a meter next to her.
"Nobuu!" The little creature stomped in frustration before it reloaded its gun and attempted to aim its gun again, however, before it could, Emiya's form blurred forward, and with his twin blades, sliced the chibi Nobu in two.
"N-Nooobuuu…" the little thing said as it disappeared into a small flurry of yellow lights.
Sakura released the breath she had been holding in relief. She looked to her savior and once more, she came face to face with the man who seemed to do anything and everything to avoid her.
Despite the awkward atmosphere that came between them after the creature was dispatched, Sakura did not forget her manners and bowed her head in gratitude.
"U-Um T-Thank you for saving me, Emiya San!" She raised her head, but saw the man in question unwilling to face her as he stood in front of her.
"Don't thank me yet, we are still under attack," he paused speaking for a moment, then he finally turned around to look at her in the eye, "you need to be more aware of your surroundings. You were lucky I was around to save you this time but you shouldn't expect me or anyone else to come to your aid next time.."
"O-oh okay." She hung her head low in defeat before looking back to meet Emiya's form, only to see he had vanished, likely to dispatch any stragglers left behind.
0-0-0
"You little bastards! Die!"
A wall of flames engulfed a small group of chibis, causing them to scream in agony, shortly before their black powder pouches exploded and finished them off. Unlike the Gudaguda events, they did not leave behind any trinkets or the like. Only a shadow of where they body once remained.
The one who dispatched them was an imposing woman wearing the same style of clothing as the chibi nobus, a dark military uniform with a blood-red cape blowing in the wind. She stared at the pathetic remains of the chibis with disgust before looking around her surroundings with frustration in her features.
Various questions raced in her mind, and while many of them she didn't know the answers of right now, she had one that she knew the answer to.
Whoever pulled this shit off and forced her to come back here is going to pay, dearly.
She had already made a promise to that white corpse that she was going to tear down her reign, but after what she was told was happening here, she was forced to return, not only made her look like a coward, but also a liar. Not only that, but she endured an insufferable lecture by Okita in the weeks following the incident, and she is sure that pink head is going to nag her ear off after this.
When she finds whoever is responsible for this, she is going to put a bamboo shoot under their ass as punishment for daring to go against her.
The battlefield grows quiet after nearly all the tiny monstrosities were killed.
Chibi Nobus were not hard to kill. In fact, they were quite weak, but their sheer numbers combined with the fact that they multiply like rats makes them such a pain to fight.
"Man, not a single drop. Whoever is in charge of this event clearly had no idea what they were doing." Gudako the red-headed master said as she kicked the soot covered ground where the chibis were.
"Gudako, please don't treat this crisis in our kingdom as one of your people's quirky festivals." A blue haired boy in armor said with a deadpan voice as he stared at Gudako with disapproval.
At least Gudako seemed a bit remorseful for her words, "sorry." She kicked more of the ground under her white boots.
"Huh. They were more fragile than I expected."
A new voice broke the silence that befell the battlefield, The surrounding heroes turned to the origin of the voice, and immediately they were perplexed by what they saw.
A voluptuous woman in a purple robe was staring back at them. The woman herself emitted a strong aura of deviancy. Next to her was someone no one expected to see, it was the princess of the Emblian Empire, Princess Veronica.
Except, unlike before, her presence was more pronounced. The magical energy emanating from her was substantially greater than before.
The petite woman scoffed at the devastated forces below them.
"I believe the term you meant to say was 'useless,'" she responded to the woman, disappointment lacing her tone. "They didn't even cause any noteworthy damage."
"Nobuuu?!" Finally, the third figure revealed itself, and who could have guessed it, it was a chibi nobu. But unlike the others, this one took the form of the mystery woman next to Veronica.
"Don't worry about it sweetheart, the princess is just cranky she couldn't make the Askarians get a taste of their own medicine."
"Princess Veronica?! What are you doing out of your cell?!" The person who asked was Alphonse, as he was one of the people who visited her on occasion.
"Isn't it obvious? I am here to invade, but it was a complete failure." Veronica stated, which caused the Chibi Nobu next to the mystery woman to hang her head in shame.
"Which means we have to go back to the drawing board."
"Do you really think we're going to let you leave after you caused this?" Alphonse said as he pointed his blade at Veronica, who just looked at him cooly.
"No, not really, but we didn't come unprepared. Loki, if you please?" The mystery woman snapped her fingers, suddenly, the world bent to her will and dozens upon dozens of chimeras, wyverns and other beasts that Chaldea has encountered in the singularity. Mounted on their backs were even more Chibi Nobus, these of the gold variety.
The cacophony of roars and 'Nobu' sounds in the air caused everyone to jump into battle mode again, but no one moved as they gauged the strength of their opponents.
Many people, including Nobunaga herself, would have been baffled and confused as to how this woman got access to these beasts. If not for the fact that Princess Veronica had just name-dropped a god of Norse myth.
If anyone was capable of sneaking into a heavily fortified location and stealing samples of beasts to recreate, it would be Loki, the god of Mischief, err goddess in this sense.
"If it's any consolation, your magical defenses were quite a fun puzzle to solve, any normal mage would have easily been caught messing around with your bounded fields ages ago," she smiled sweetly at them, like a mother who had seen through a child's plans, "but unfortunately for you lot, I am not a mere mage, and while I normally would have introduced myself at this moment, the princess unfortunately took away the element of surprise."
"So wait, you're Loki, as in THAT Loki?!" Doctor Romani, who was on the comms, exclaimed as he spoke from Chaldea's headquarters. He and other mages were already aware that many of the naming conventions of Zenith heavily paralleled Earths, but seeing someone who claimed the same name as the Trickster God, that made him and the Chaldeans a bit weary.
Meanwhile, Gudako stared at the woman with furrowed brows, whispering the woman's name under her breath to recall who she was. It was only after Loki began smugly talking to Romani that she remembered.
"Oh! I know you!" She pointed a finger at Loki, who looked bewildered by the sudden voice of Chaldea's second master. Then she gave her a smug look, "do you now? Please enlighten me master of Chaldea, what do you know of me?"
The woman stared into the redhead's eyes, her smug grin contrasting the serious expression on Gudako's face.
"You're that god who fucked and gave birth to an 8 legged horse right?!" Gudako said as she remembered something she had read in a manga.
Instantly, Loki's playful attitude soured, and an angry face marred her beautiful face.
"Oh, I read about that! I believe his name was Sleipnir?" Sharena said, as she remembered the tales she read in the library.
"Yeah, that's right, little lady. Loki took the form of a mare and got busy with a horse." This time it was Caster Cu Chullain who spoke, he stared at the voluptuous woman, who was glaring daggers at him and gave her a toothy grin, "and all I have to say is that horse was one lucky motherfucker."
A vein appeared over the woman's head when she heard Cu speak but she took a deep breath and composed herself. She looked at Cú chulainn, who had a shit eating grin on his face, then her eyes drifted to the one who brought up the topic in the first place.
The girl seemed to be agreeing with the blue bastard's statement. If the conversation had gone any different, she would have playfully teased the girl with her assets as she was well aware of her tastes in men and women, unfortunately, such mercy was rescinded and all that was left was cold fury.
"Kill her."
Loki didn't need to specify who she was referring to, as the beasts around the battlefield all instantaneously turned their gazes to Gudako, who took a step back in fear.
Then they pounced.
0-0-0
"Hmm. Another loss."
"So it would seem."
Once again, The Order of heroes came out on top, as they quickly dispatched the beasts aimed at their master, much to Loki and Veronica's disappointment.
"Oh well, it was worth a shot, but it seems we're going to be running with our tails between our legs," Loki and Veronica made to leave, but a loud voice, the one belonging to Nobunaga, stopped them before they left.
"You aren't going anywhere, ya fools!" The Fool of Owari Nobunaga glared at the two, her eyes glowing with anger "I suffered a lot of crap from Okita because of you two, and I intend on making sure you two suffer for using my image for your own goals!"
She jumped and in the blink of an eye, she was already in front of Loki, her blade held high and raring to cleave her in twain.
Unfortunately for her, her blade found no flesh to slice as the woman teleported away in time.
"Ahaha, you nearly got me there, but nice try."
Flames of rage erupted from Nobunaga, and she charged forward once more, but this time she aimed at Veronica, her bangs covering her eyes.
Yet somehow, despite that, her vision was just fine. Because, much to Nobunaga's disbelief, the young girl dodged out of the way.
"[Rexcalibur]"
"Wha?!" Freezing winds blew Nobunaga away, the heroic spirit's flames were smothered and her arm and lower torso froze. Had she not jumped away in time, her whole body would have frozen over.
She landed unceremoniously face-first into the ground.
The rest of the bystanders took that as a sign to interfere, however, their attacks did not land as the Emblian princess sidestepped and teleported out of their weapon's grasp.
After an entire minute of this dance, Veronica teleported for the last time before she appeared next to Loki again, who had used magic to levitate herself in the air.
The girl glared down at the Order of Heroes, but unlike last time, her eyes seemed off.
Many of the heroes had not met Veronica personally, only heard of her through stories and from a distance. However, even they knew the look of that girl's eyes was not her own. Something had possessed her.
"Veronica, are you okay?" Sharena was, alongside Alphonse, the other royal who frequented Veronica's cell. She had tried talking to her on multiple occasions to become friends with her again, as they had in the past. Unfortunately, she had no such luck due to the humiliation she had suffered.
Staring into those maddened eyes worried her, as although Veronica was an enemy, she still viewed her as a friend, albeit a troubled one.
Her heart sank when she saw the cute girl's face distort into an evil smirk. Veronica was fully capable of showing such faces to her enemies, however, unlike the previous times, this face felt like it was being forced. The sheer madness in her eyes brought a chill down the spine of anyone who looked into them.
A small giggle rose from the princess's throat, and although it was quiet, the eerie silence of the battlefield allowed it to carry through further than it would have. Then, the giggle became laughter that grew louder and louder until it became a psychotic cackle.
Even Loki seemed a bit concerned about the princess's state of mind, but since no one was attacking them, she decided to wait and see what would happen.
The cackling stopped, but Veronica remained smiling as she looked at the heroes before her, who were looking at her like she had grown a second head. She didn't seem to care about that, as she raised her hand and an immense amount of energy began to accumulate on her hand.
The heroic spirits who were the most sensitive to divine energies were shocked to see just how much divine power this normally weak girl now possessed, and were the first to react.
Medusa rider, with her immense speed, picked Gudako up bridal style and sped away from the action. The other heroic spirits, seeing the others spring into action, followed suit, taking hero summons who would not be able to keep up, and civilians away from the area.
Seeing the Askarians and their allies scurry like rats brought joy to the woman who looked like Veronica but wasn't. Had the girl she was possessing not been resisting her influence so much she would have gathered energy much faster than those fools would have reacted, but alas, this will have to do.
With a snap of the fingers, a giant wave of black magic exploded outwards, engulfing everything and everyone it touched and dragged them into a void.
Even Nobunaga, who was still a bit dazed by the ice attack, was engulfed into the void. As soon as it did so, Gudako looked back at the devastation with a horrified expression, as the magical link between master and servant snapped much like a rope under too much pressure.
For the first time since Gudako arrived at this world, her cheerful mask fell, revealing the vulnerable girl underneath.
Nobunaga was gone.
0-0-0
The temple of time.
It was the location that was once the workshop of the founder of magecraft, Solomon. Now it was the den of Demons who hope to remake humanity in their image.
The one leading them sat on a white throne, observing the singularities with furrowed brows.
He had just observed the Goddess Rhongomyniad be cut down by an unknown. A blue haired man possessing a shield and, surprisingly, the sword Excalibur. The man himself had a lot of qualities that would have allowed him to wield the weapon. Still, regardless of the significance of this event, it would not be a threat to him or his plan.
Seeing Chaldea and the pathetic humans waste their time fighting the inevitable always brought a bad taste to his mouth. Even as he found amusement in their futile actions, he still pitied them.
Suddenly, he felt the mental connection with his demon pillars signal that it wished to speak, so he allowed it.
"AAMON(REPORTING): CHALDEA HAS DEFEATED THE LION KING AND CONQUERED CAMELOT."
"Yes, I am aware of that Aamon, and it was quite the grandiose display," he remarked with a touch of sarcasm in his tone.
"FLAUROS(INQUIRY): THOSE PESTS REMAIN ALIVE? SUGGESTION: DESTROY THEM BEFORE THEY REACH BABYLON."
GREMORY(REBUTTAL): OUR KING HAS STATED THAT WE SHALL DESTROY THEM WHEN THEY REACH THE TEMPLE OF TIME.
HALFAS(SUGGESTION): WE NEED TO ERADICATE THEM AND THE EXO-HUMANS WHO INTERFERED WITH OUR PLAN!
"No, we will do no such thing. They are insignificant and will fail once they arrive in my domain," although Chaldea has gotten significantly more well-equipped since they linked to the other world, he felt it was unnecessary to do anything at that moment. He already made the deal with the Last Masters of Chaldea that the fate of humanity will be decided here, at the end.
"HALFAS(PLEADING): RECONSIDER. THEY NEED TO BE PUT TO HEEL. "
"SITRI(STATEMENT): HALFAS NODE IS DISPLEASED BECAUSE HE LOST TO THE HUMANS. HOWEVER, THE KING HAS SPOKEN. WE SHALL FOLLOW."
Ah yes, he remembered when that happened. Halfas had been offended by the very notion of having lost to humans. He had grown hateful and vengeful, to the point where he and the pillars questioned whether he needed to have its memories wiped.
"ASTAROTH(SUGGESTION): WE SHOULD INTEGRATE THE OTHER WORLD INTO OUR GRAND ORDER."
"Oh? An interesting proposal, Astaroth, but tell me, why should we waste our time and resources on alien worlds when we are so close to achieving our goal?"
"ASTAROTH(AGREEMENT): YOUR CONCERNS ARE VALID, HOWEVER, THEY ARE STILL HUMANS. HUMANS, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ORIGINATE, STILL SUFFER THE SAME ISSUES AS OUR HUMANS. THUS, I PROPOSE WE REPEAT THE GRAND ORDER INTO THEIR WORLD ONCE WE FINISH OUR OBJECTIVE HERE."
Several voices jumped into the conversation after Astaroth made his point. Many rejecting the plan as a waste of resources, others wholeheartedly agreeing with the proposition, while a scant few didn't care for it.
"I have made a decision." The voices quieted down, "while I agree that such a proposition could be a waste of resources, time means nothing to us. We can easily accommodate the humans of other worlds into our Grand Order. However, such plans will be delayed until after we destroy Chaldea and rewrite history in this world. Only then will we set our sights elsewhere."
Most of the demon god pillars seemed satisfied with his answer and proceeded to move onto other topics.
Leaving Goetia by his lonesome once more as he lazily sat on his throne.
0-0-0
It has been a few weeks since the Chibi nobu incident happened.
And life has gotten back to normal since that day.
Gudako, for the most part, has managed to regain a bit of her old facade, but the cracks in her mask never healed.
Ever since that day, she has not been able to feel Nobunaga in the slightest. Since the moment she was engulfed by that magic, it had become impossible for them to find a way to find her.
Gudako even tried to resummon her, but it proved useless since no matter what catalyst she used, or how many times she rolled, Nobunaga failed to appear.
This world, which she once thought of as a sort of surreal vacation isekai spot, had just turned into a serious threat out of nowhere, all because of chibi nobus for god's sake.
Her friends tried their best to cheer her up, and while it helped, it still didn't keep the unease from reaching into her heart.
There existed someone in this world with a power that could possess people and cut her connection with heroic spirits. Someone who, for some reason, did not capitalize on their moment of vulnerability and hasn't shown up to completely strand her in this world.
The message of that being was very clear, Chaldea's presence in this world exists only because they allow it. At any moment, that being could pop out of nowhere, and she would never be able to return home.
She hasn't truly slept comfortably since then, but she didn't want to worry anyone so she decided to take strolls around the castle so that people wouldn't worry about her.
She walked around the castle and saw heroic spirits and hero summons interact like friends. Despite the revelation and disaster that occurred, everyone still seemed to be doing their best, in spite of the fact that their time together has just become even more temporary than it was before.
"Hey Gudako, hurry up!"
Gudako turned to see the voice of the person who spoke to her. The one responsible for brining her here. Her fellow redhead in crime, Anna.
They have only known each other a couple of months, but it already feels like they've known each other longer.
Gudako only gave her a hum of acknowledgement, which caused Anna's annoyance to fall into concern.
"I mean, coming!" Gudako dashed toward her and caught up to the redhead, who still looked at her with concern.
"You sure you are okay?"
"Yes, I am." No, Gudako wasn't okay, but she didn't need to be to do what she needed to do.
"Well, if you say so. Just, if you need to talk about it, just let me know." Anna said with a smile.
"Wow, free therapy from the infamous Anna herself? I'm honored," Gudako mockingly put a hand over her chest.
"Who said anything about free? I boast a hefty hourly rate, but for you I'll give you a 5% discount," she threw a wink at her.
Heh.
Gudako laughed, and all her worries were forgotten, at least for a moment.
"Alright, now that you've had your fun, let's go. The others are waiting for you at the summoning altar." Anna turned around and walked in the direction of the summoning altar.
"Fine, I'm going, I'm going."
Gudako followed behind her, her spirits lifted and her optimism restored.
Regardless of the frailty of the time they have left together, she is going to cherish it for as much as she possibly can.
Author's Note: And there we have it. It was a struggle, but the main story is now done. I know I left it a bit open ended, but this was the best I could do with my current writing skills.
I originally wrote this story because I wanted to see certain Fate characters interact with Fire emblem characters. Reading Demon in Fodlan by Mundatorem really pushed me to publish this earlier than I should have, as it created a plot bunny I needed to write.
Then the burnout came, and you guys who have made it this far know what happened.
I learned a lot in the past year and I am grateful to everyone for your constructive criticism.
Now, we only have 2 chapters left, the side story and the compilation of omakes I want to release before I completely call it quits and move on.
The deadline for omake ideas will be friday of this week.
I will publish the compilation of omakes just before new years but after christmas, so that I have enough time to flesh out the ideas.
Feel free to comment and like if you liked my story. And if you didn't, also let me know. If my story left you unsatisfied and pushes you to write something, then I look forward to reading your story.
Until next time.