Gritting his teeth, Shirou pushed away his reservations and stood tall amid the overbearing magic energy 'Nero' was outputting.
From the connection in his Command Seals, he knew for sure that this was his Servant, and yet it wasn't a Nero that Shirou could relate with. Her character, motivations, and even stylation differed from the original to the point it was evident that she was another Alter version of Nero.
All at once, the oppressive energy expanded throughout Rome, interfering in all fighting and actively expelling citizens and soldiers alike from inner Rome.
Servants fighting were no different.
Jeanne hastily put up a barrier of light, but the darkness kept pushing her back and dragging the barrier through building after building until she was outside Rome's walls. Others had it different.
Saber and Jeanne Alter had no choice but to use their magic energy as a shield, and were consequently blasted backward from the impact. The same was true of everyone else.
As the barrier expanded over Rome, everyone was forced to retreat lest they drown and burn in the dark flames.
However, at the center of the catastrophe, the area was remarkably calm.
The tension filling the air was palpable, Shirou feeling it more than Romulus as they both stared hard at Nero 'Alter.'
She wore a ruined dress of black and red, a long v-neck running down to her navel. Horns were jutting out of her head, and her fingers appeared blackened by fire.
The slitted irises she had for eyes were blood red, giving the image of a feral predator.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Romaaa!"
The tip of a spear appeared within view, but a dainty hand had risen to grab it mere inches from Nero 'Alter.'
Romulus's expression was grimm, tremors running up his spear as he tried to push it into Nero's heart. However, he was unable to get it to budge despite his muscles bulging.
"Rome?" Nero 'Alter' mused. "Hehehehe, umu, it won't work."
"Magna Voluisse Magnum!"
Tree roots grew from beneath Romulus's feet and tried to ensnare Nero 'Alter,' but pillars of black fire intercepted them with ease. The energy penetrated through the hardened bark and directly reduced the wood into ashes in the wind.
No matter the protections or power that Romulus put into his spear or Noble Phantasm, his expression hardened as he realized his authority was being eaten away.
Staring eye to eye, a savage grin made its way onto Nero 'Alter's' face while Romulus grunted as the energy continued to erode his power.
It was the antithesis of everything Romulus stood for.
An overflow of malefic magic energy that carried the trait of Anti-Roman.
The advantage was to Nero 'Alter.'
Nero 'Alter' raised her hand, but Romulus planted his foot into the ground and wrenched his spear free with both hands.
"Useless."
Nero advanced, her actions making it look so simple despite the sheer output of magic energy Romulus was releasing.
"I am the beast that heralds the end of this era, and the downfall of Rome." Nero 'Alter' murmured, staring directly at Romulus. "Rome cannot stop my march."
The great tree that represented Romulus himself began to wither and burn.
Creasing his brows, Romulus could feel the gravity of the situation quickly deteriorating. This was as he'd feared.
"I am Rome! And Rome is here!" Romulus thrust his spear out again, faster than Shirou could even perceive, but a resounding clang echoed.
Nero 'Alter' batted aside Romulus's spear and pierced her palm through Romulus's sternum.
"Fall." She whispered, her piercing hand gripping the base of what was clearly the Holy Grail in Romulus's possession.
A torrent of concentrated energy then penetrated through Romulus's sternum, frying his insides before blasting him through the skies of Rome, his fate unknown out of disinterest.
Carefully, Nero 'Alter' brought the pilfered Holy Grail close, various thoughts flickering over her eyes before the premier emotion surfaced.
Glee and happiness.
"Umu. Preator!" Nero 'Alter' excitedly turned her attention to Shirou before the smile on her face gradually faded.
She'd been seeking obvious praise, and yet-
Shirou stood guarded towards her; his eyes set with determination as if he were facing a monster.
"P-Preator…?" Nero 'Alter' stepped forward, and Shirou stepped back and Traced his black bow. "N-No, ah AH!"
Rejection.
Again.
Always her.
Nero 'Alter' clutched at her head as even more of the dark magic energy consumed her. Slowly, her dominant personality began to wane and the influence of the Beast, the Whore of Babylon, began to direct her.
Nero 'Alter' felt her heart squirm, her stomach sinking before anger at the world and humanity suddenly flared in her expression.
"…You too." She mouthed darkly, throwing Shirou off.
Shirou was already confused about what Nero's current form represented, and now he just didn't know anymore.
What he did know was that whatever Nero 'Alter' had planned wasn't going to align with Chaldea's goal of restoring proper human history.
His eyes couldn't help but glance at his Command Seals. Master and Servant, that was their relationship, but Nero 'Alter' didn't seem to care.
"Try it. Go ahead. See if those seals will work," she practically goaded.
Shirou clenched his jaw, the two standing in a stalemate.
Shirou was unwilling to attack first if his Servant could be reasoned with, and Nero 'Alter' still seemed reluctant.
In the end, Nero 'Alter' shook her head and pointed a hand at Shirou.
Instantly, demon-like pillars crawled up around Shirou's legs and began dragging him out of Rome.
"What are you doing?" Shirou protested, Tracing a pair of swords and stabbing them into the ground as leverage.
It wouldn't last.
"What I should have done from the start." Nero 'Alter' flared her magic energy, and the force attempting to drag Shirou out of Rome intensified.
No longer did the demon-like pillars merely wrap around his legs, but now they wrapped him whole and rapidly pulled him away.
"Nero, wait, don't!"
Nero 'Alter' pushed Shirou out of her Rome, eyes downcast, and features bitter.
It was the final image Shirou saw before he was pushed out of Nero's Rome like all the others had been.
A dark barrier surrounded Rome, a bounded field of malefic and dark magic energy that resembled walls of flame. It was a hellscape right out of a scene from the apocalypse.
"It's no use," Mash pursed her lips while pressing her shield against the barrier and trying to force her way through. "There's no way in."
Behind Mash, Ritsuka and the others had regrouped after gradual crawl of the barrier around Rome pushed them out of the city's vicinity.
"It's going to keep growing." Martha warned.
"It. Will. Not." A stern voice answered.
Coughing out blood Romulus forced himself onto his feet from where Ritsuka and the others had rescued him and laid him to rest.
Without care for his Spirit Origin, Romulus called upon his second Noble Phantasm.
"Moles Necessrie!"
Romulus's second Noble Phantasm represented the Legend in which he killed his beloved brother Remus.
A blood soaked rampart was summoned, fortress walls rising from the earth around Rome's perimeter and creating a Bounded Field that protects and isolates those within. In this case, it created an isolated boundary where the corrupting force could not easily breach.
"The encroachment will proceed no further for as long as I live," Romulus said with great effort, sweat beading his brow before he took a knee, clutching a hole through his chest.
"Great Founder, hold on." Caesar murmured, moving to support Romulus. "Saints!" He called.
Martha felt sweat seeping into her clothes as she prayed hard with her hands clasped around her. A holy light surrounded Romulus's injury, but it wasn't closing. Rather, it was still bleeding.
"It's not healing." Martha pursed her lips, nerves fraying. "This energy is too foul."
"Blessed be the lord, for his mercy encompasses all." Jeanne whispered a prayer and held her banner aloft, its warm glow adding over Martha's prayers.
Finally, Romulus's bleeding stopped, but everyone's faces were still grim.
"At the very least, we can keep it from spreading." Caesar muttered before turning his sight back on Rome.
It was now apparent to all why Romulus had opposed them at the start. This must have been what he'd tried to prevent.
"It's not a Nero that I know," Caesar said distantly.
"An Alter?" Ritsuka offered, recalling Jeanne and Saber Alter's cases.
"That isn't simply an Alter," Romulus shook his head, grunting as he tried to sit up with Martha's support.
"Remnants of a Beast." Arthur said next to Caesar as he gripped his sword tightly.
Beasts of Humanity representing its Seven Evils. That's what it was, but incomplete.
"Indeed." Romulus ascertained. "That was the Rome I wished to stop before it spiraled."
Martha and Jeanne glanced at each other as soon as the confirmation validated their thoughts. It was the Beast spoken of in Genesis.
Shuddering, everyone's attention quickly turned back towards Rome when a figure could be seen pushed out and deposited outside of Rome in a far gentler manner than anyone experienced.
Arthur could still recall the wave of horrid energy that interfered in his bout and forced him into a retreat with the rest.
Regardless, the identity of the individual was evident to all.
"Shirou, senpai!" Mash yelled, garnering everyone's attention.
Shirou was ejected from the ominous bounded field surrounding Rome, and tumbled over the ground until he dug his heel into the dirt and killed his momentum.
"Dammit," Shirou cursed, punching the ground. He stared hard at the Command Seals on the back of his hand, and then back to Rome.
Nero…
Whatever that was, it wasn't Nero, but regardless, Nero was still in there. The expressions she made, her hesitation, and disappointment, it was real.
These Command Seals represented an easy out.
Whether to summon her before him and ambush her, or even to command her to kill herself, the Command Seals would serve their purpose. However, the confidence Nero 'Alter' had when she said to try using them was grounds for suspicion.
He'd wait until she was before him again.
There were other things more pressing right now.
Not everyone was as pleased to see Shirou as Ritsuka and Mash were. Others were indignant that it had to come to this.
"Shirou, why?!" Martha demanded with a stern expression. "If you had just listened, and let everyone come to a decision, we could have avoided this result."
"Oi, watch your tone before my consort lest I cut out your tongue," Saber Alter warned as she manifested in a shower of golden sand.
Jeanne Alter hissed a second later, materializing in a burning fire next to Shirou. "My Master doesn't answer to you, but me. Me. Only I get to talk that way with him."
Shirou's brow twitched at the Alter's twisted form of defense.
Priorities. Priorities. Shirou stressed in his mind.
Shirou addressed Martha and even Jeanne who wore a mixed expression.
"Listening to you then would not have helped. Rather, you and the others would have accelerated this entire mess." Shirou shook his head, determination bleeding into his features. "What Nero needed was support, not neutrality or opposition. Allies, not fence sitters."
Shirou didn't go into the specifics, as there was no time to convince everyone, but a few did wince at the accusation.
Martha didn't see it that way. No one else was like Shirou who could sympathize with the history of a weapon.
"Now see here-"
["Now's not the time to argue. The magic energy readings over Rome are off the charts!"]
Romani sent an urgent transmission through the air. The graveness of his tone belied a growing panic.
["The Singularity's Erosion rate is drastically increasing. If history misaligns any further, there's no going back."]
Shirou didn't press the issue despite his frustration. Instead, what they had to do now was to act.
"Ritsuka, we need to locate Nero." Shirou said, looking at his fellow Master to support him this time rather than be caught hesitating. "This entire singularity is doomed if Rome or Nero perishes."
Ritsuka got an idea.
The Bounded Field surrounding Rome wasn't in the form of a dome. Although there was no practical way of scaling the dark and flame-like magic energy, Ritsuka's Servants weren't of the conventionary sort.
He had a Dragon.
"Sieg, can you fly over?" Ritsuka requested.
"No problems," Sieg answered positively, more than willing to be of use after being relegated for most of the singularity.
Regardless, Shirou didn't think Sieg alone would be enough.
"Take Jeanne with you. Her riding on your back should enhance your parameters." Shirou suggested to Sieg in earnest.
Jeanne visibly brightened at the prospect, already moving to accept with a solemn heart and hands clasped over her banner. She beamed.
"Oh, no problems I'd be happy to-"
"Wrong Jeanne." Jeanne Alter sneered, pushing past Jeanne and locking Sieg in a headlock. "'Dragon Witch,' remember?" She said, grinning at a dumbfounded Jeanne.
Worse, Jeanne was uncomfortable with the position Jeanne Alter was holding Sieg in. His head was too close to Jeanne Alter's breasts, and it irked Jeanne to no end despite the urgency of the situation.
"Little sister, propriety, m-modesty! No, I mean I'm the one who should go. I have more experience riding Sieg in France!" Jeanne argued in feeble protest.
"That isn't an option, Saint," Caesar cut in, pointing at Romulus. "We need both you and Martha to help keep Romulus alive."
Jeanne pursed her lips, glaring at Jeanne Alter as she laughed raucously and suddenly slapped Sieg on the ass.
Shirou ran a palm over his face, a tired sigh escaping his mouth.
"Giddy up, lizard!" Jeanne Alter delighted in Sieg's mortification, and Jeanne's sheer indignation.
The scalding glower and clenched jaw Jeanne directed at Jeanne Alter could be nothing else than personal.
No sooner, Sieg changed into Dragon form and allowed Jeanne Alter to jump on top. Held in a free hand, her blackened banner representing her symbol of terror in France, billowed in the wind.
Raising her sword, Jeanne Alter channeled her magic energy and flared it around her, engulfing Sieg in an aura-like magic fire.
[Dragon Witch EX]
Sieg's eyes widened as his muscles bulged, and his Dragon Scales hardened considerably. His teeth and claws sharpened, and his pupils dilated as his eyesight rapidly improved. He felt stronger than he'd ever felt before. Excess magic energy swelled within him such that each breath had embers of flame escaping his mouth. His horns grew darker, and his visage more vicious.
Jeanne Alter was impressed at the improvement, but Jeanne's expression was ashen.
"Let me know through our link when you locate Nero's location." Shirou said.
Jeanne Alter nodded.
Manifesting reins of magic energy, they wrapped around Sieg's maw and stabilized her on Sieg's head. Grabbing onto the reins, Jeanne Alter snorted at Jeanne, the two making eye contact.
"Fly little bitch!" Jeanne Alter said with a grin before kicking a heel beneath her, prompting Sieg to unfurl his wings.
In a gust of wind, the Dragon Rider that terrorized France appeared in the skies of Rome.
"Be careful," Ritsuka called out to Sieg and Jeanne Alter. Sieg was the only one who responded while Jeanne Alter merely grunted.
Nero 'Alter' sat on the throne of her Golden Palace, not keeping any measures to conceal her location even as a Dragon surveyed Rome's sky overhead.
Let it be. It didn't matter.
No matter what they did now, it was already too late.
Her eyelids drooped as she fell into melancholy. In the palace, was the present era's Nero peacefully sleeping away in deep slumber.
The roles had flipped on their heads. One now wakes while the other immerses herself in dreams.
Emotion flickered across Nero's pupils, smothered beneath the desires of the Beast of Sodom urging her to act quicker.
No. Umu. At her pace, and it was final.
Nero 'Alter' nursed her head, the migraine growing worse and worse.
The roar of the Dragon overhead caused the palace to tremble, and Nero Alter finally had enough of it. To dare grow so bold just because of her leniency did not comply with her bottom line.
Staring up at Dragon Witch gliding from up high, Nero 'Alter's' mouth began to curl in disdain.
'That's close enough.'
Tendrils in the shape of demon pillars suddenly shot up from the ground and fired beams of magic energy from narrowed jeweled eyes.
"Fuc-!"
A silent scream echoed in Nero 'Alter's' ears, but she paid it no mind.
The Dragon Rider took evasive action and hurriedly retreated from attack range, but not without the Dragon having to guard an attack head on with its hardened scales burnt black.
No sooner, the Dragon roared, fired a breath of blue hell-fire to ward off incoming strikes, and then hurriedly gained altitude.
Disinterest marred Nero 'Alter's' face. It was all so trivial.
She refocused.
Nero 'Alter' made no conscious effort to pursue.
What mattered was where she was, and the ritual she was conducting to alter her Rome forever.
She sat back on her throne, surrounded by growing magic energy. The sound of the magic thrumming resembled the beating of a heart, and at its center was the Golden Palace.
What was she doing this for?
More than just a release of the evil within her, it was envy steepled with regret.
It had been her mistake.
Even she did not know who she truly was, everything that comprised her beings mixed with differing goals and desires, and yet one stood out strongly.
She was a being born in parallel, a correction that erred beyond reason.
This wasn't her first time in this scenario.
History would correct itself upon a Singularity's conclusion, but what did that mean for a Nero who had someone who supported her before the sun had set thrice?
She'd been saved.
But the world would correct.
Regret and mental health had been Nero's bane, and in a distant iteration, a deeper loss prompted her to take a path of no return.
The question therefore remained.
If she had already been saved, then how could the world prompt her to ruin and then despair?
…
Nero 'Alter' balled her hands into fists, the palace shaking in her fury.
The image of that man torn away from her by time and fate, spurred her resentment.
The emotion at the end of hope was a despair that awoke the primordial sin within her.
Not this time.
Never this time.
"Found her." Shirou announced before opening his eyes. "Jeanne Alter says Nero is staying stationary in her Golden Palace where a large-scale magic is unravelling."
Alright, that still changed little.
The problem now was breaking their way in.
Mash winced as she made another attempt at passing the barrier around Rome, but failed as tendrils of fire bounced her off.
They couldn't just give up like this!
BANG!
An explosion rippled out as Saber Alter blasted out a portion of the barrier with a swing of her Noble Phantasm. For a second, the way was clear, but no sooner, the barrier's flames encroached on the space.
Saber Alter clicked her tongue.
They could force their way in, but she'd have to constantly fire her Noble Phantasm, and even then, it would be a battle of energy reserves. Shirou had shared the fact that the Holy Grail fell into Nero 'Alter's hands which made it a losing battle if they matched with magic energy.
There had to be another way.
"Can the Dragon carry us all and drop us onto her location?" Arthur proposed in a knightly manner.
Shirou paused, listening to Jeanne Alter's input.
"We'll be shot down before we get anywhere near close." Shirou declined the suggestion. "And even if we can defend, our reserves of magic energy are no match for hers."
The problem was still breaking their way into Rome and marching to Nero's Golden Palace.
The answer to the conundrum plaguing everyone's minds came from the most unlikely of people.
Given the state of Rome, Caesar had lost all joviality, his expression stern.
"Do we need any other solution?" Caesar proposed with a loud reverberation of his voice. "It is Rome that should march on Rome."
The words carried weight because this was Rome and due to the proximity of the current era to Caesar's legend.
"He who brought the Legions and marched them over the Rubicon, breaking a long-standing taboo." Caesar swallowed down his nervousness, showing only steadfast resolve. "Indeed. It is me!"
He who had believed that the only way to protect himself was to seize power from the republic, that was Caesar.
"And this land is a Rome that is against me! Therefore, the stage is set!"
That which was spoken of in history.
Caesar's march on Rome.
A march that could not be stopped even by black flames and opposition.
Moving towards the bounded field, Caesar lifted his hands and placed them over the black flames. Grunting from exertion, Caesar began to sweat as his magic energy reserves rapidly began to deplete.
In contrast, the black flames began to recede.
Caesar's figure as a Heroic Spirit shook, his form flickering as his Spirit Origin strained. "I will guide the way."
"Wait." Romulus pushed himself back onto his feet despite Martha and Jeanne's efforts to hold him down.
Romulus walked towards Caesar.
"Lord Founder." Caesar swallowed his anxiety, weighed down by the pressure of standing before the predecessor of his empire.
"As you are now, you will perish in those dark flames." Romulus said. It was a fact. One that Caesar knew well before he'd even taken the first step forward.
"I know," Caesar replied.
Romulus grew silent before coming to a decision. "As Romulus and as Quirinus, I know that Saber is not your ideal form."
Romulus began to focus on himself, and placed a hand over the center of his body where his Spirit Origin lay.
His figure begins to vanish into motes of gold light.
"Use my core as a catalyst. It is possible here, because it is Rome." Romulus explained.
"Founder…" Caesar opened and closed his mouth.
Without the founder, the corruption would spread out of Rome, but containing it wasn't going to solve the problem either. What they needed was to strike at the root, and there was no one else better than Caesar in this instance.
"For Rome."
Romulus offered his core held in his hand as his figure began to vanish.
Caesar felt a chill run down his back as the founder passed on the torch.
"For Rome."
He would march with his legions into the capital once more.
Light engulfed Caesar as he took Romulus's core and merged it with his own. His Spirit graft began to change and alter, his appearance morphing into his most ideal form. He began to slim, muscle and definition causing his biceps to bulge and legs to harden into sturdy pillars.
On his body, a set of golden Roman armor formed upon an ivory laurel that sat on his head. A chariot stood beneath him, pulled by the finest of Roman stallions.
"Rider," the figure in the light murmured as the brightness began to dim. "Julius Augustus Caesar."
Julius of Caesar's prime era was a formidable man whose charisma enthralled his legions to march on Rome itself.
Standing on the war path to Rome, his mere presence drove back the black flames surrounding the capital.
"Rally the Legions," Julius said to his stunned compatriots and a silent Arthur.
Different from Saber, Caesar in his Rider form, Julius, was the very definition of Caesar's cunning, intellect, and ambition.
And Julius's gaze was directed solely on Saber Alter.
Saber Alter bristled. "What?"
"They need a leader." Julius answered, gesturing to the Romans expelled from Rome who would remain once the Singularity was concluded.
Divided they were weak, but a Legion consisted of more than just a unit, but the whole. In the present age, the Legions were the apex of a nation's force, and their march into Rome would have meaning.
They would bolster Julius's authority and legend.
Still, the image the Romans needed was not of Julius, but that of the Nero they knew.
Rome needed a leader.
"Not one intent on forsaking them, but a fake that has been fighting on their behalf, and whose likeness most resembles the emperor in proper history."
"I am not Nero," Saber Alter gnashed her teeth.
"But you will be." With immeasurable cunning, Julius quickly glanced at Shirou and then back at Saber Alter.
He inferred what he needed, and said what he needed to say.
"Who says a fake can't beat the original?"
Shirou perked up, and to an extent, even Jeanne Alter who was listening in through their connection grew resonant on the words.
All eyes stared at Saber Alter who felt a mounting pressure from their stares.
What Rome needed now was not an emperor of the past, but an emperor of the 'present' era who could lead them rather than destroy them.
.
.
.
Mash bashfully held up a certain scandalous black dress to Saber Alter.
Thanks for reading! And thanks to my newest patron: Johndoe1992!
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