Burnt Sacrifice
In the form of a shadow, the Heretic God Hanuman hovered above the ground. He was on the lookout for a sign from his enemy... The minor god was terrified. God of the wind, devourer of the sun, and god of the shadow, he used to be the hunter... this time he was the prey.
Accustomed to hit-and-run tactics, he played with his victims before finishing them. For the first time, it was he who was fleeing from the incessant skirmishes of a Campione that arose from nothingness, attacked, and retreated before he could even counter-attack.
Attentive, Hanuman looked on one side, then on the other.
The Subordinate God shuddered while hearing an explosion-like sound. He turned around to discover that a duel was underway at a hundred meters.
Sun Wukong had just fallen on his back and straightened up... since he was in his giant monkey form and weighed several hundred tons, the ground had trembled, and his fall had caused a shock wave similar to a bang.
He was fighting a...
A mosquito.
At least, a human-sized opponent who was flying and circling around the Monkey King. Except that two huge bronze fists, fists of titans, flew near the woman and that the latter duplicated the very movements of her own hands, knocking the giant monkey in her place... Luo Hao utilized the divine authority Divine Might of Vajrapani to strike the Sun Wukong with the bronze hands of the statue of this Bodhisattva.
For a brief moment, Hanuman turned around to observe the fight between the Monkey God and the Ruler of the Martial Realm. This was exactly the diversion Godou Kusanagi was waiting for. Brandishing his black sword, he whispered an incantation.
"Here! Namely, the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi! The steel that breaks a thousand blades!"
Susanoo's sword had many powers; one of the most useful was his ability to copy other Authority. Any Divine Authority that Godou had seen at least once could be duplicated.
The result was inferior to the original but, unlike Verethragna's Ten Incarnations, this duplicated power was not limited to one use per day.
The Japanese Devil's King turned into a bolt of Black Lightning... copying Black Prince Alec's most famous Authority.
Hanuman screamed in pain and stepped back, holding his wounded hip in one hand. The divine ichors splashed on the ground.
Under the influence of anger and fear, he trembled as he looked at the... the... the kid who had just materialized next to him and hit him with a weapon capable of wounding a god!
"You dare to hurt me... you will pay for it, vile usurper."
Godou smiled, not really impressed by the threat.
"You know, all I want is to live in peace. I didn't start this fight, but I intend to end it. If you leave now, with no fuss, I give you my word that I will not pursue you."
"As if I were going to believe you, all the Campiones are blasphemers who live only to steal divine powers."
The young Japanese smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"You could ask Athena... she would answer that she is my friend." His smile hardens. "But it's no longer possible. You killed the Queen of Night!"
Hanuman shuddered. The teenager, almost ordinary the moment before, now looked at him with a fury poorly contained.
But he refused to bend. He was a god. It was mortals who had to be afraid of him, not the other way around.
He held out his hand.
"The name of mine father is Vayu. Mine name, his child, is Hanuman. Oo, I seek for that far away light and heat, now I dash up the celestial path!"
Pillars of solar fire appeared from the ground around Godou and closed to form a cage that imprisoned... nothing! The Japanese Godkiller had once again turned into Black Lightning escaping before the fire bars had fully formed.
The next moment, the Japanese returned to human form, in a thunderclap, right next to the wind god.
Before Hanuman could even turn around, Godou planted Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi in his back. The divine sword, infused with The Black Lightning Authority, generated powerful electric shocks that transformed the god into smoking ashes.
Exhausted by the expenditure of energy, the Harem King fell to his knees, his forehead covered with sweat.
However, he straightened up feeling a magical energy discharge through the battlefield.
His Campione heightened senses allowed him to recognize the energy signature of someone he had already seen at work.
And this is...
"Shirou?"
What happened? He had briefly seen the redhead confront Ishtar and understood that he was controlled by a Heretic God... and now... that? What meant such a massive deployment of magical energy?
The energy felt by Godou was Unlimited Bladework.
Inside Shirou's Reality Marble.
Standing on a high dune in the middle of the desert, Shirou was holding Saber's Sword, the legendary Excalibur.
His eyes followed the movements of a figure dressed in white that plunged into him from the sky.
Not a single eyelash moved in his face, but four huge Viking swords of the Ulfberth type appeared floating next to him. These weapons, replicas of those used by the enemy Giants of the Aesir of Asgard, were suddenly catapulted at high speed.
Ishtar was fortunately as comfortable in the sky as a man was on a sidewalk, actually more, since she could dodge an attack in all three directions of space. The Goddess of Venus was not touched...
[Try to get closer to Shirou!]
Ishtar swore quietly. That's exactly what she desperately needed: useless advice! No, the goddess had absolutely no thought of getting closer to Shirou so that he could no longer use the swords of his arsenal against her! And that was absolutely not what she was trying to do at this very moment!
[Give me some helpful advice on how to do this, Hakuno, instead of distracting me! ]
There was a pause. The Mistress of Heaven managed to dodge four European swords, including a beautiful rapier with a fine gold cup hilt.
She held out her finger.
Several projectiles of golden light appeared behind her and rushed towards Shirou... But they were intercepted by a wall of shields of different types, first a Greek Oplon, then a Native American shield decorated with feathers, then a Norman-style kite shield, and a magic construction made of translucent prana ornamented with the Scutum Fidei inscription (1).
Again, Ishtar began to recite a litany of swearing, but she was interrupted by a Chinese halberd (Guan Dao) that she barely avoided, the blade even cutting a lock of her hair...
Houtengeki, Lu Bu's weapon, dug a deep crater in the desert, raising a veritable sandstorm that forced the Goddess of Love and War to protect her eyes and mouth.
The face of the Queen of Venus reflected a mixture of anger and frustration.
The most irritating part of this whole absurd situation was that Shirou would not have had the slightest chance against a goddess of her power if she fought seriously! But the Mistress of Heaven held her blows, not wanting to hurt him, only to free him from the mental control that had turned him into an enemy.
Probably Ishtar showed a lot of bad faith by refusing to admit that her 'boyfriend' really put her in trouble. But the fact remained that she would not fight at full power... while the Faker had no such scruples.
As proof, a new salvo of swords had just torn off the sand of the desert to rush towards the Goddess of Beauty. Only a quick change of direction prevented Ishtar from turning into a divine pincushion.
[Hakuno, I need a plan, and right now! I won't last very long. ]
The mental voice of the Inheritor of the Moon responded immediately.
[I have a plan, Ereshkigal will destroy Unlimited Bladework!]
Seen from a certain angle Shirou's obsession with killing Ishtar was not so negative, since he concentrated all his forces on the goddess, he completely neglected her allies, leaving them time to prepare their counterattack.
Outside Unlimited Bladework.
A trio of Campiones faced a lone Heretic God.
Lord Salvatore Doni held in his silver hand a sword he had just created replacing one that had just broken. He was smiling, excited.
Right next to him, the clothes torn and burned, Black Prince Alec stamped with his sleeve the blood that flowed from his wounded forehead.
To his right, his mask damaged by a long crack, John Pluto Smith held in his hand a huge metal revolver.
The meeting of three such powerful Campiones would normally have been overkill... but they were facing the King of the End. Until then, they had not managed to inflict more than a few scratches on the most powerful God of Steel...
"Are you ready?"
It was Smith who just spoke.
The other two Godslayer nodded.
The next moment, they launched a triple attack. From Doni's sword came a kind of dazzling laser beam, while a flood of Black Lightning rushed out of Alec Gascoigne's body, rushing straight to Rama. As for Smith, he fired his six-shooter. But his 'bullet' was a ball of fire that exploded with devastating power burning all things to the ground up to ten kilometers around.
"Finally!"
With disbelief, Sun Wukong looked at Luo Hao Cuillan's body. The Campione had fought well, but she lay on the ground and the last signs of life were fading from her body.
He had won over the Devil King!
Incredulous, the God of Steel looked at the young woman... she did not move... it was not a feint for lowering his guard... the Campione was really dead! He had won. He had really won.
The Monkey King flipped his head back and uttered a victory cry that shook the sky.
"I have won!"
He had rarely been so proud of himself. It had been centuries since he had faced such a strong opponent, physically strong, technically strong, all at once a Campione, a Martial Arts Master, and a Wizard!
Even though the Old Sun had fought in his most powerful form, his was covered with abrasions, bruises, and flesh wounds...
Even the Chinese gods had failed to inflict such a beating on him.
But he had won!
The Old Sun won the fight.
He was standing in front of the corpse of the Campione... well aware that it could very well have been the opposite. He had won... but by little... so little.
A little calmer, the Monkey King looked at Luo Hao's broken body. Kneeling, he laid her on her back growing her hand on her chest.
Even if she was a despicable Campione, she had fought honorably; her remains should not be desecrated.
Just as he offered his respects to the opponent he had just defeated, a feeling of instinctive terror ran through his bones... the fight was not over and someone was resorting to an Authority of devastating power.
His eyes widened when he saw a wall of flame rush towards him at supersonic speed!
Miles away, in a vast circle of destruction, this region of Italy had been transformed into a vision of hell that even the great Dante Alighieri would struggle to describe. Everything was leveled, human constructions, forests, even hills. Rivers had evaporated. All that was left was gray ash that fell from the sky like rain, for lack of fuel - everything had been consumed in an instant- the flames were extinguished.
Not far from the center of the explosion, a bubble of blue light, decorated with Yi-King's trigrams and Chinese ideograms (hànzi) that appeared and disappeared on its surface, was the only structure to have resisted.
Sun Wukong, standing in the center of the magic shield, looked at the devastated landscape.
He dissipated the defensive spell, leaving Luo Hao's body in the protected area.
The Monkey King jumped and fell back to the center of the huge crater created by the explosion.
He looked at the three Campiones and laughed.
"You think you are the victors? This is laughable. You're so naive! The Strongest Steel is still alive. Lend an ear..."
As the Heretic God had made silence to follow his own advice, Doni, Gascoigne, and Smith heard the voice of Rama murmuring an incantation:
"O Lords of Fate listen to the voice of your Champion, I Rama, the Strongest Steel, I implore you to honor the Great Ritual of the Old Covenant. By my brother Lakshmana and my friend Hanuma's blood, by the sacrifice of those that died in your name, I claim this privilege!"
An earthquake answered the call of the King who Rule at the End of Time.
Cracks opened in the ground, expanding rapidly. At the center of the spider web formed by these chasms, a column of dazzling platinum light suddenly rose to reach the sky.
The only dark form in this hectic riot of light was Rama levitating in the center of the pillar.
Congratulations, all conditions have been met (2) for the Strongest Steel will fight at the absolute pinnacle of his power.
Inside Unlimited Bladework
[Now!]
With a wave of her hand, Hakuno pointed to the sandy, sword-planted soil of Shirou's Reality Marble.
Holding her scarlet spear in hand, Ereshkigal breathes in, and then breathes out, emptying her lungs completely. A red light enveloped the Queen of the Netherworld, rising like a scarlet vapor, higher and higher.
"Fine, I'll cast you down to the bottom of the earth!"
She swirled her spear, faster and faster, above her head. Blue lightning appeared, first one at a time, before succeeding so quickly that a real spiderweb formed, creating a blue wheel of fire.
"Please, Meslamtaea! Experience the Providence of the Underworld! Appear, Shrine of Fever. "
When the Sumerian Goddess of Death lowered her spear to place it horizontally, without ceasing to turn it quickly, a wave of blue flame was released.
"This is my Kur Kigal Irkalla!"
The wave of blue fire struck the great dune on which Shirou stood. The effect was immediate... the hill of sand collapsed and long cracks appeared in the ground, spreading rapidly and extending in all directions.
Pieces of ground turned and tilted to fall into... nothingness... there was nothing under the desert, just a reddish darkness covered in a blurred form reflecting all the colors of the rainbow.
The cracks now appeared even in the sky, and the gigantic gears fell, breaking into a thousand pieces before even reaching the ground.
Kur Kigal Irkalla was much more than a mere offensive Noble Phantasm.
It was Ereshkigal's ability to take possession of a part of the planet and appropriate it, transforming it into part of her kingdom, Irkalla (also called Kur, and even Arali).
The outbreak of this divine energy had destabilized the fragile balance on which rested the temporary existence of Unlimited Bladework.
The two universes could not exist simultaneously. It was normal that the strongest - the Mesopotamian Netherworld, nourished by the beliefs of a religion that had existed for centuries- supplanted the weakest.
Like an ice sheet thrown into a blast furnace, the Reality Marble evaporated!
At the same moment, outside Unlimited Bladework.
John Pluto Smith looked at the column of light that began to fade. Repelling the despair that threatened to overwhelm him, he turned to Doni, Gascoigne but also Godou who was running to join them.
"Flee, quickly. Do not wait! I will try something, but if you stay you will die! Leave, do not argue!"
Understanding that his ally was serious, Black Prince Alec used Time Reversal to recover the use of Black Lightning and fled... as fast as lightning... literally.
Godou appealed to the Raptor, lifting by force Lord Salvatore Doni with one hand, he started to run crossing several kilometers in a matter of seconds.
Left alone, the Fairy King turned to the two Heretic Gods. What was he thinking? Who Know? His face was invisible behind his mask.
He began to recite an incantation.
"In order to destroy you, let me tell you about my greatness- as the omnipotent one, all citizens exist for my use. The people are my slaves, I am the wind of the night, I rule the earth and the sky, I am the most noble mage! I am the axe of the night that calls forth termination! The god of creation and destruction!"
Smith's mask broke into a thousand pieces and his clothes ignited.
Where a man had stood, there now existed a creature made of black fire and heat. It emanated from all his being a furnace heat.
What happened next resembled the explosion of a thermonuclear bomb.
Tezcatlipoca, as an incarnation of sun and flame, had the power to turn into living fire. Releasing all the power of the Aztec god, the Campione created a huge sphere of flame that dug the ground around it, turning stone and earth into glowing magma.
This zone of extreme heat remained in place only for a brief moment before being catapulted upwards and exploded into a formidable explosion that caused buildings to collapse and overturned cars in Milano. A City that was, however, more than three hundred kilometers away.
It was the most powerful Authority of the American superhero.
This divine power had only one flaw... Smith had to sacrifice his own life to fuel it.
Shirou Emiya was ejected into the real world following the collapse of his Reality Marble. But the cataclysm that had destroyed Unlimited Bladework paled against the apocalypse that had befallen Italy.
Without the divine protection of his Red Plain Mystic Code, the Faker would have been instantly burned and shredded by the furious winds that stripped the ground to the rock and leveled the hills.
Nevertheless, he was torn from the ground and thrown toward the sky as his face and hands blistered.
Again, he does not think, leaving to his instinct the discovery of a solution.
A memory that was not really one of his memories imposed itself on him...
Saber's last fight in the memories of Emiya Shirou's version that was to become Archer...
As the King of Heroes waved his cylindrical sword, Saber seemed surprised, turning her head as if listening to an inner voice, and then raised a hesitant hand, tending it towards something that she alone was to see.
"Enuma Elish!"
The scarlet hurricane hit the King of the Knights. This time it was a deadly blow, the game was over.
"You were... my sheath, weren't you" murmured the clear voice of the blonde knight. "Utopia that lives in my dreams. What is its name? Avalon."
There was then the birth of a star on the battlefield. Avalon, the sheath of Excalibur, had just appeared, surrounding its rightful owner with a cocoon of energy resistant to all magic.
Shirou's Tracing Magecraft did not allow him to Project all the weapons stoked in his Reality Marble. Some weapons simply required more Prana than he could generate.
The problem for Avalon was different. Excalibur's scabbard was simply a Noble Phantasm too complex to reproduce...
However, in a parallel reality, Shirou had managed to Trace Avalon... and even to reproduce this Ultimate Noble Phantasm identically... He had only succeeded because the original was nearby, in the hands of Saber, its rightful owner, a being whose soul was linked to his own.
But such favorable circumstances were the very definition of a miracle.
Except that the Campioneverse was richer in ambient mana, facilitating the use of every form of magic. Without Gaia and Alaya, there was no rule prohibiting the existence of replicas of a weapon existing elsewhere or the recreation of a destroyed weapon. As a result, the Tracing was also much easier.
Shirou had already managed to Trace Avalon to save Ishtar after Luo Hao stopped her heart with a punch.
Except that he had used the long method for Tracing... in seven steps and he had his full energy reserves, not having fought a long fight just before.
There, he needed to Trace Avalon instantly, because the movement of air drew him into the furnace created by the fireball! And because he had drawn from his forces throughout the difficult fight that had opposed him to Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Hakuno... he was at his wit's end.
Only a miracle could allow him to survive.
And by definition, miracles are not reproducible.
Except that this same definition of miracle called it 'divine intervention' and that Shirou was precisely under the influence of Insane Rush. Lancelot du Lac's Authority amplified the powers of the Faker, but not only that... it removed unconscious barriers in Shirou's mind, giving him access to faculties that he did not consciously control or was unaware of possessing.
Swirling like a dead leaf in the burning wind, the redhead held his wrist in one hand, supporting his arm outstretched forward.
"Trace On!"
The words of his incantation were carried away by the wind and no one heard them. Yet Shirou's Magic Circuits were activated. Two lines of green light appeared on his arm. Their light filtered through the red fabric of his signature red mantel.
But it wasn't enough... Shirou wasn't turning enough Od into Prana with only two medium throughput Magic Circuits opened.
Other circuits opened on his two arms... four... then eight... some of these circuits had never been activated before and the redhead clenched his teeth while a frightful pain radiated throughout his body.
Without finesse, he pushed the circuits to open to the maximum, unlocking the roads partly obstructed by a flood of Od.
Boosted, the circuits emitted discharges in the form of lightning that created short circuits, damaging the energy lines.
Around his left eye, the skin was smoldering and browning, and the stain extended toward the forehead. When the brown stain reached the hairline, the hair began to fade, losing its bright red color.
But before his hand appeared an oblong shape made of golden light...
Details slowly emerged from the dazzling radiance, a gold sheath inlaid with intertwined lines in blue enamels with an inscription in fairy language.
Avalon.
The golden light enveloped Shirou, creating a barrier resistant to all forms of magic... even to Tezcatlipoca Living Fire's Incarnation.
When Shirou regained consciousness, he had a bitter taste in his mouth and his head resounded painfully, as if the annual meeting of the Blacksmith Corporation were taking place under his skull.
Painfully, he straightened up, keeping Excalibur's sheath against him.
Avalon had saved his life at the time of the explosion and, since then, continued to treat his burns and injuries.
Without him realizing it, the effects of Insane Rush had dissipated... this was also the result of the protection of the sheath.
Normally, the redhead would have been sleeping for the next 24 hours... until he recovered from his wounds and exhaustion. Except that his instinct had woke him up. He was in danger.
Hearing fighting noises, Shirou understood...
The battle moved towards him.
Since the beginning of the battle, Marquis Voban and Lancelot du Lac had been fighting a duel.
They had never been separated for more than a few moments and when it had happened, rather than looking for another opponent, they had gone in search of their opponent.
For Voban, Lancelot was his prey and the old hunter was certainly not going to let another the joy of getting such a beautiful trophy.
Even without feelings and emotions, the White Queen was an honorable knight. Between her and the old wolf, it was a duel.
Raising her spear, Lancelot looked like an alabaster statue. Above her, clouds were gathering, and flashes of lightning testifying to the arrival of a storm. But before the first bolt hit her weapon and amplified her strength, resistance, and reflexes, the Balkan King counterattacked.
"O wind, blow"
Above the wolf man appeared a trio of Chinese gods: Bo Feng, Yu Shi, and Lei Gong, the gods who controlled the weather.
A powerful storm wind scattered the clouds in all four directions.
Sasha Dejenstahl Voban laughed.
His fluorescent green eyes began to shine with supernatural brilliance; attracting the gaze of the White Queen... she staggered as the Eyes of Sodom wielded their inexorable curse on the Amazon.
A mortal would have been turned into a statue of salt, but his will was strong enough to contain the Evil Authority. But the left arm of the Heretic Goddess, including her shield, turned into grayish powdery crystals.
Marquis Voban leaps forward, determined to take advantage of the weakness of his enemy but...
—She dodged the attack with a leap to the side and struck back immediately.
The spear pierced the oldest of all the Campiones from end to end.
He staggered, walking backward stumblingly.
Strangely, the blow had not inflicted any visible injury. Yet Voban fell to his knees, hands on his face, shaking his head violently while screaming...
His scream reflected unbearable pain that was not a physical one.
The White Quen looked at her arm returning to normal.
Then she spoke without a hint of emotion.
"My spear can pierce everything. It can injure any substance. Even what normally cannot be hurt. Marquis Voban, I have inflicted on you a wound that will never heal."
While the goddess was about to finish the Campione prostrated on the ground, but a silhouette in torn and burned red clothes entered the battlefield.
Shirou paused for a brief moment.
The few steps he had just taken had been enough to make him sweat, he heard his heart beating loudly against his ribs, and, at times, his sight was blurred.
Ishtar was going to be mad at him. Again. She always asked him to take it easy. But it wasn't really his style... As long as he was standing, he had to act.
Given his condition, he could still Trace one Noble Phantasm... and then he would pass out.
He turned to Guinevere.
The poor thing was worse off than he was. Her face was a mask of soot and her once beautiful dress was now charred rags.
"Rama put Lancelot in this state?"
Surprise, the Witch Queen nodded without uttering a word.
"Is this the result of an Authority?"
Surprised by the question, Queen Guinevere looked at Shirou awkwardly.
"Why are you asking this kind of question right now, sir knight? Lancelot saw you, she will attack you! Defend yourself!"
"Answer my question, please."
The voice of the young Japanese was polite but firm, but also very weak... the human gasped as if he had just run a marathon.
"No, my King used the Sangreal. It's a very powerful magic object, but not a Divine Authority."
"All the better," Shirou said smiling. "Even if it's an indulgence from the Age of Gods, I doubt it would be effective against a divine power."
Lancelot approached, raising her spear, preparing to eliminate Shirou since he had freed himself from Insane Rush but...
"Trace On!"
A strange dagger appeared in Shirou's hand. The blade looked like a frozen lightning and the metal had reflections that shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
The redhead reached out and touched Lancelot's hand with Rule Breaker's tip... Medea's Noble Phantasm bore its name well. It brought back any magical object, any bewitched individual, to the state that was it before it was enchanted.
A dazzling violet and white light emanated from the point touched by Rule Breaker.
Lancelot shouted and...
Suddenly her armor exploded, throwing her back.
When she regained her senses, Arthur's finest knight was... fully naked. Looking around as if she woke from a long sleep, the Queen of the Amazons saw Guinevere and then Shirou.
"What is it that..."
But she could not finish her sentence, the Faker interrupted her by collapsing on her and the knight woman had only the reflex to hold him before he rolled to the ground...
The redhead had used his last strength to deliver her from the curse of Rama.
Looking at Shirou, passed out against her, Lancelot blushed slightly and bit her lip not to laugh
Boing!
"Uh... he could have fallen worse. He must have had a special chance with women. The kind of boy that enters a room just when a pretty girl changes."
Boooing!
Indeed, Shirou's face had just fallen on... uh... on Lancelot's bare chest.
Eroge protagonist one day, eroge protagonist always.
(1) The Shield of the Trinity or Scutum Fidei (Latin for "shield of faith") is a traditional Christian visual symbol that expresses many aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity, summarizing the first part of the Athanasian Creed in a compact diagram. In late medieval Europe, this emblem was considered to be the heraldic arms of God (and of the Trinity).
(2) The great ritual of the Old Covenant is Rama's most powerful Divine Authority. The condition for the King of the End is said to be the death of a deity whose name is related to the covenant under the influence of a Devil King, allowing him to exercise this power as the executor of the Old Covenant. With this Authority enabled, his power is multiplied to match the combined power of all currently living Campione!