With the target before them, there was no need to hesitate over indecision.
Nero shook her head and assuaged her doubts with her own determination. She was the one who decided to participate, and it was she who would see everything through with her own eyes.
The time to act was now, and she wasn't the only one thinking on the same page.
"Jeanne, separate the army!" Shirou called from Nero's side.
Jeanne blinked, faltering in her strides as the group sprinted forward. "How can I-"
"Bitch he meant me!" Jeanne Alter advanced, a roar of flames building over her drawn sword as she augmented herself with magic energy.
Quickly, Jeanne Alter overtook the group, the flames on her sword flickering with black energy as she then swung it down. Flames ignited the ground with a fiery luster, directed by the war banner Jeanne Alter held in her other hand.
Columns of running fire quickly spread across the hills at a rate far beyond a human's speed. Mad Emperor Caligula led from the front, but there was a space between him and his army that Jeanne Alter did not fail to clearly divide with her fires.
Caught by surprise, the army fell into panic and confusion as the flames soared higher and higher, caging them in a growing sphere.
"Control the heat. Don't kill them," Martha cautioned Jeanne Alter.
"I don't take orders from you," Jeanne Alter sneered, but balked when Jeanne expression shifted into a nuanced scolding glare on the side. The threat of nagging after battle eventually dissuaded Jeanne Alter from having her fun.
"Thanks, Jeanne." Shirou came up to Jeanne Alter's side and thanked her in earnest.
"…this is nothing." Jeanne Alter's cheeks reddened. "Don't underestimate me! I-I can do this all day, l-like only if you want though?"
"I'll leave it to you." Shirou dashed past Jeanne Alter and headed in the direction of Caligula with Nero, Arthur, and Saber Alter.
Martha and Jeanne stuck around to support Jeanne Alter and heal the wounded in the army if need be.
Of everyone present, Jeanne Alter was the best at using her abilities to contain the enemy army.
Mankind started with fire, but just like other animals, they too also feared fire.
As embers drifted along the warm breeze, Jeanne Alter kept staring at Shirou's back until he vanished over the hill; her heart doing funny things as an inexplicable glee assailed her with teenage adrenaline; a new chapter in her first-time innocent love life.
That was until she heard cooing from Jeanne and a red-faced Martha.
Jeanne Alter hissed.
Is it wrong to pick up her man on a battlefield?
/-/
Caligula stood alone screaming at the skies even as Saber Alter and Arthur appeared to flank him.
"Nunngh!" Caligula's blood shot eyes glared at the two Servants, veins popping over his skin.
It was at this point that Shirou and Nero appeared on horseback, the two quickly dismounting not a moment sooner as the madness in Caligula's eyes terrified their mounts.
"Stand aside. I'll handle him," Saber Alter glared at Arthur who shook his head.
"That's not your call to make," Arthur said. "You stay back. I don't need someone like you to fight my battles."
Saber Alter and Arthur continued to bicker outwardly, but inwardly the two weren't naïve enough to lose focus on Caligula.
In contrast, Shirou's focus was centered on Nero whose shoulders were trembling in agitation from the beginning.
"N-NERO!"
Nero faltered, taking a step back as Caligula's bloodshot eyes leveled with hers.
Even in his madness, Caligula could recognize Nero, and Nero alone. He didn't even glance at Saber Alter.
"Hello uncle," Nero said, throat dry as she armed herself with her sword. "Will you give up quietly, or-"
"Nero...my heart... I never thought I would see you again..." Caligula murmured, causing Nero to freeze as memories of her childhood before Caligula went mad assailed her.
The days where her mother took her to emperor Caligula, and he bounced her on her lap. Happy times, cherished memories, and the sadness that came with losing them. Back before all the deaths and familial killings.
Back before her mother…
"I-Is that you, uncle?" Nero croaked out, seeing a semblance of sanity bleeding through Caligula's eyes.
If not for Dianna's madness her wise uncle would never have led Rome astray.
"NUNNGH! Ugh!" Caligula screamed, clutching at his head.
"P-Praetor." Nero pursed her lips, staring at everyone, her question going unasked.
However, Shirou could tell what Nero was thinking. "You want to capture him alive?"
It was understandable. Nero's understanding of Servants was still shallow, and the way she was viewing Caligula was as if he were alive in the current era, but it was different. Servants were summoned in their prime states, and as a Berserker, Caligula was summoned in his madness. The semblance of reason persisting within him would not be able to overcome the rage and mental corruption.
"No killing then. I can get behind that," Arthur readied his sword and stepped forward. However, he wasn't the only one to step forward as Saber Alter did too.
"I told you he was mine. Will you interfere in a one-on-one duel? How low." Saber Alter glowered with poisonous eyes. "Have you no honour?"
"Focus!" Shirou reminded everyone.
Caligula punched the ground, red magic energy coating his fist before a storm of dust and debris obscured vision.
Everyone quickly raised their guard, but even mad, a semblance of reason remained in Caligula. On his own, he wasn't winning a battle between two Sabers with Shirou and Nero.
As Saber Alter and Arthur flared their mana to clear the dust, the sky had dimmed from day to night.
"Never forgive...my...sins...!"
Caligula appeared standing upon a spire of rocks that erupted up from the ground.
Nero's pupils dilated as she heard the words. "Uncle, wait, what do you mean?!"
"Nero, move!" Shirou pulled Nero behind him, a cold breeze descending over the area.
The sun above began to transition to a full moon, the iridescent glow shining down over everyone.
The mad emperor cried at the moon.
["Enemy Noble Phantasm!"]
Romani's warning came too late.
"Flucticulus Diana!"
Caligula howled, sending a shockwave of air outward as the moon's light seeped into the group's heads.
["It's a mental corruption wave, be careful!"]
Shirou groaned, his mind a jumble of thoughts and confusion. It was difficult to even maintain his Reinforcement let alone carry out the necessary process to use his Tracing. A mental debuff skill?
Shaking his head to help clear his disorientation, he glanced up to see both Saber Alter and Arthur still glaring at each other as the mental contamination messed with their perception. However, neither attacked, revealing the iron will of their own self control.
Then what about-
"Nero!" Shirou warned in concern when he noticed Caligula right in front of her.
"Rargh!" Caligula chambered his right fist with dense magic energy, and then thrust it toward Nero's gut.
Nero gasped raising her sword in defence but faltering when Caligula abruptly stopped his own attack by striking his right arm with his left.
A shower of blood and snapping bone reverberated.
Caligula had mutilated his own arm.
Nero couldn't close her mouth, various emotions flickering across her eyes as she interpreted her uncle's struggle in front of her.
"Uncle- why?!"
Caligula stumbled back, using the opportunity while Saber Alter and Arthur were disorientated to get a word in before retreat.
"You are... Rome... You too...are Rome..."
Caligula fought against the influence of the Command Seal acting upon him.
"Body…Offering…" He muttered to Nero. "Kill…Me…Protect….Rome…Nunngh!"
The extent of hurting himself was as far as Caligula could resist, but there would be no next time.
"U-Uncle." Nero reached out towards Caligula, but the Berserker was already sprinting off into the distance.
Instinct was higher in Berserkers, and coupled with Caligula's unwillingness to harm Nero, retreat had been the only option.
"He's running away, stop him!" Saber Alter tried to flare her magic energy in the form of a mana burst, but her skills were all sealed from Caligula's mental interference.
The same went with Arthur and Shirou.
They should have brought either Martha or Jeanne with them to cleanse their debuffs, but at the time, all were confident that one Servant wouldn't be able to escape Saber Alter and Arthur's combined encirclement.
Caligula vanished over the hills, ending their first encounter.
Both Saber Alter and Arthur were brooding at their failure while Shirou was thankful that no one was hurt during the encounter. What was left to do now, was how to handle the Roman army that willingly followed Caligula.
Shaken as she was, Nero was a born actor and took the initiative to address the army still shrouded by Jeanne Alter's flames. The heat had been severely affecting many near its perimeter, but Jeanne and Martha were constantly casting healing on the army to prevent any from dying.
"I will talk reason to them," Nero mustered the motivation to brave the flames in front of her.
Jeanne Alter was tempted to singe Nero as she stepped through to address the enemy army, but the trust Shirou was staring at her with whittled away at the impulse.
Nero stepped through the wall of flames, granted passage by Jeanne Alter herself.
"Romans, put down your arms, it is I, emperor Nero!" Nero flourished her arms into the air and twirled on the balls of her feet. "The true leader of Rome!"
The reception was lackluster at best, and hostile at worst. To be fair, it wasn't wholly Nero's fault that Jeanne Alter had been practically cooking them after caging them by surprise.
"Romans?" Nero titled her head as Caligula's Roman soldiers raised their weapons at her.
"What have you done to our emperor?!"
"His reason could return!"
"Our wise emperor is the true leader of Rome!"
Nero bowed her head, biting down on her lips. "Umu, my people! Just hear me out! I -ack no, why are you-?!"
"Tch," Saber Alter pulled Nero back through the wall of flames and out of sight of the army. "You lack experience in warfare."
It was then that Saber Alter stepped through the flames herself, grumbling under her breath.
"Yield or die."
She gave a single ultimatum.
Black magic energy condensed over Saber Alter's sword.
"The choice is yours."
Nero grimaced as she heard the words from out of view, but from the perspective of the Roman soldiers, it was as if 'Nero' had gone bipolar.
Saber Alter could care less.
What defeated army would look favorably upon the victor?
If they were of no use, she'd rather discard them than waste the effort. The ruthlessness in her gaze was properly conveyed and augmented by Jeanne Alter's backdrop of black flames caging everyone in a literal inferno.
What in Pluto's name.
It was as if they'd been taken to the underworld.
The Romans shivered, and gradually dropped their weapon, raising their hands in surrender.
Saber Alter nodded and began yelling instructions while Arthur had mixed feeling as the blatant coercion and tyranny.
And Nero, well, she was, Nero.
"B-But I was supposed to speak…" Nero murmured, hanging her head and mouthing off to Shirou like a child. "I-I could do that too. She's not better than me."
"Sure, and you would have sung to them too, offering songs in your praise?" Jeanne Alter snorted while taking back her flames, irritated that Nero was using Shirou as moral support.
The effect was opposite of what was intended.
"Are you a mage as well?" Nero's eyes twinkle in wonderment. "Umu, how did you know? Are you a fabled mind reader?"
Jeanne Alter's expression twisted. She'd been ignoring it for Shirou's sake, but she wasn't as considerate or as patient as Martha and Jeanne.
Nero was the beast of persecution who slaughtered many Christian devout in her rule. It was a miracle they were being polite to each other, but the Lord's teaching was to treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself.
Martha and Jeanne could be like that, but Jeanne Alter didn't have to be so reserved. She was already a blasphemer.
"Mhm-!"
Jeanne quickly clapped a hand over Jeanne Alter's mouth as she tried to answer.
"She means well," Jeanne's smile was strained, not meeting Nero's eyes.
Shirou sighed, rubbing his face.
His group really was the definition of chaos.
They eventually returned to Rome accompanied by Caligula's defeated army. The fact that there had been no mutiny or conflict whatsoever was a stunning feat that even Caesar acknowledged as a man who became emperor through his military achievements.
However, the true reason for such stellar results was the doubt that emperor Nero could employ a technique of duplication to enforce her power on any traitors. It made many see Nero in a new light, and to realize that there could be a future of a prosperous Rome with a strong leader like Nero.
The misunderstanding was beneficial, but Nero was sulking the entire time, Shirou her only source of reassurance.
Breaking off from the army, Nero, Shirou, Arthur, Saber Alter and Jeanne Alter, Martha, and Jeanne met up with Caesar at Nero's Golden Palace.
Briefly, they shared the conclusion of their task.
"So, he got away? Hmm." Caesar hummed in thought before nodding his head. It could bode trouble for Rome, but at least Caligula would have to move on his own. "Manpower is manpower regardless of anything else. Caligula's soldiers can be used to fortify Rome, but for now let's hope our other comrades have better fortunes."
["I can help with that. I've been monitoring both groups from the start."]
A beep echoed as Romani's communication link came to life, a virtual image of his upper body appearing from a device projected out of a nodule on Shirou's Chaldea Combat Uniform.
"You're quite sharp for a mage, aren't you?" Caesar grinned jovially. "If I had such means of communication during my campaign in the Gaul's, I would have conquered further and faster! Anyways, do share!"
Romani cleared his throat, growing somewhat sheepish before openly pouting.
["They have succeeded but, lord Caesar, you didn't mention that one of the Servants was 'her' of all people…"]
"I did." Caesar quickly defended himself as the others watched.
["No."]
"I most certainly did." Caesar frowned, lip curling into a huff before giving Romani the side eye. "Do you not remember when I told those people with the troublesome faces not to go?"
Saber Alter, Jeanne, and Jeanne Alter made faces at Caesar, while Nero remained oblivious that it was an insult. What was her beauty if not troublingly alluring?
["…Huoo, still a better heads up would have been appreciated. She's reluctantly agreed to cooperate along with her allies, but just to be sure, we should always keep someone in-between her and Nero."]
"Is there a problem?" Nero asked Romani. "I get along with everyone."
One name soon came up that explained everything.
Servant Rider.
Queen Boudica of the Iceni annihilated by Nero's Rome.
.
.
.
"oh."
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