Section 8

We all arrive at the doorstep of the "church" though, I don't even notice one, but apparently it's here. Edmond leads us all in with Haydée using her ability on him once more, and once we step inside, the illusion fades and a large church interior is laid in front of us.

It's just a gray, empty lobby. It's like this place hasn't been used in a long time with all the dust and cobwebs. Candles however light the place as if we were expected to arrive soon enough.

"Chaldea, we stick together on this one. We need to make it to where Altrouge is and slay her. But we need to stay vigilant for attacks from the other two she's with." We all equip our combat outfits and begin to walk. Alice, Olga, Ritsuka and I in the middle, Edmond in front, Jeanne in back, Mash to the left and Nick to the right. Haydée also is behind us, floating near Jeanne and keeping the most lookout out of everyone with her being able to float.

From the lobby, we found a staircase that leads to an upper level and we carefully walked up it, each step feeling more tense than the last.

At the top of the staircase is yet another hallway with a large door at the end. The candles seemingly beckon us to follow, and worst of all, we have to.

We follow the hall and stop at the door. "Okay, either they're not here at all, they're waiting for us to come in, or they haven't noticed us, what do you think?", Jeanne says, her hand already on her blade.

"No, they're there and waiting. It's not exactly a trap. But we can't just leave either. It's better for us to just walk in and face them now, because if we turn back now, she'll just kill us.", Nick answers her. He too seems tense and ready for a confrontation at any moment.

"You can tell?", Mash asks.

Nick only nods in response. "Your call, Director."

Nick's phrasing only makes Olga more tense as she places her hand on the heavy door. If he's worried, then just what is going to happen in the next few seconds?

"Let's go, Chaldea. There's no running from this."

She pushes open the large door and we walk into the altar room. A rainbow-like glass window is at the very end of the room, wooden pews are on each side of us. The room is dark, only lit by candles and the air feels thick. But something everyone notices right away are the three sets of eyes looking at us.

Altrouge Brunestud sits on the altar as if she was expecting our arrival, which she was. A man in a black cloak stands to her right while Svelten stands on her left, now wearing an outfit like a pirate captain rather than casual clothes.

"So, you've finally arrived, Chaldea.", Altrouge speaks, her voice echoing through the hall. "I'm surprised you got through the bounded field, but you're here now so nothing we can do about it."

She glances toward Olga Marie. "So, Director, are you feeling any better?", Altrouge laughs a little after she says that as if mocking her.

"If my will could be crushed that easily, I can't call myself Director.", Olga retorts with a determined expression.

"Just give it up, Altrouge. You're heavily outnumbered here, you can't win!", Ritsuka says, not exactly believing what he's saying, but trying to end this without a fight if possible.

"Outnumbered? Sure, you're right about that. But how many of you are actually useful? Strout and Svelten can make all of you look like a joke. The silver-haired girl with the Mystic Eyes and you, Master of Chaldea, cannot do anything to us. The only ones who pose a threat to us is white hair and the Servants. All the rest of you are just trash by the road."

Altrouge hops off the altar and we all get on guard, ready for a fight, but she shakes her head. "You all are looking for this, no?"

She holds out her hand and a golden cup manifests in it, the Holy Grail.

"That's-!"

Mash steps forward but Ritsuka grabs her shoulder, holding her back from going any further.

"The Holy Grail, yes. You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get this. I had to destroy an entire…Singularity? Whatever you call them, myself, along with Strout and Svelten killed every Servant in that Orleans place during the Hundred Years' War." Altrouge begins to count on her fingers.

"A few dragon slayers, a queen, a songwriter, a terrible singer, a saint, several actually, a few assassins, Dracula himself, a Greek bow woman, a knight in dark armor, and some fish looking spellcaster along with…you.", she points toward Jeanne Alter, who's now looking confused.

"Me? But I am right here? I have no memory of dying."

Altrouge smiles. "Well you do know that the Throne of Heroes is outside of time and space, right? You were probably summoned there, then after I killed you, resummoned here."

She's right, that sort of thing is definitely possible. But to think they beat an entire Singularity on their own like that?

"Anyway, I got the Holy Grail, but all the mana was spent by the fish man, so I created a new Singularity using the old as a base, I just traveled it a bit further in time to get plenty of new 'resources' to fuel the Grail for my wish. And once I kill all of you, I should have enough."

"And what is this wish, Altrouge?" Nick finally speaks up and demands.

"Power. As simple as that. Power. I want the Crimson Moon to acknowledge me, and power can do that. With the Grail's power, I can take all of it and consume it, letting myself gain the mana stored inside."

"Really? That's a boring and flawed wish. The Ultimate One of the Moon won't acknowledge you no matter what you do. Your body is unstable, too much for him to possess, right? You're just jealous of Arcueid and want her place, am I right?"

I have no idea what Nick is saying, but I also don't understand much about these vampires at the altar either. Whoever this Arcueid is, maybe she's someone popular in the magecraft world?

Altrouge seems to get a bit ticked by his words, but then smugly smiles. "Say, you are wondering how I even got here, no? You wonder how I, along with my guards, time traveled like this?"

We offer no response, but she goes on anyway. "Do you happen to know what an Outer God is?"

"Altrouge…you didn't!"

Nick seems both afraid, but also mad at her.

"I have formed a contract with one, and with his help, I was able to do all this. You see, Chaldea, you cannot win because of that simple fact. There's no way you, any of you, can overcome the power of an Outer God, the power of Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos!"

Nyarlathotep is an Outer God, a being that is, easiest put, a god. They exist far outside of humanity's reach, and humanity doesn't even register on the map for them. As far as they are concerned, Earth is less than an ant. Nyarlathotep being the exception. He actively takes part with humanity and uses avatars to live a "human" life. He views it as being interesting, but also enjoys messing with and tormenting humans. But an Outer God is still an Outer God, and even using an avatar is insanely powerful.

"How did you even manage to do that?", Nick asks.

"I found a book, a way to summon these deities and other monsters. Nyarlathetop seemed like my best option so I offered him a contract, and he accepted. I gain some of his powers and in return, once I rule over humanity, he gets half of them."

"So you see, Chaldea. It is utterly useless to oppose me. How about you just leave? Oh wait, I offered you that deal, Director. You let me do my thing and you all will get the Grail and live, but you rejected me, so, I will annihilate you all here. But, where's the fun in killing you all right away?", Altrouge snaps her fingers on her left hand and Svelten steps forward.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance again, Chaldea. I'll go easy on all of you, on part of the Princess's wishes, and because you helped me back then. But, for those of you on the weaker side, I will not aid you if you perish in this battle, so fight with all you've got!"

As we expect a battle against this Dead Apostle, the air gains a certain smell. The smell like ocean water mixed with a storm approaching. The cries of seagulls fill our ears and the church distorts into a blur. And when our vision refocuses, we find ourselves stranded out at sea on a large pirate ship.

The boat rocks back and forth on the waves, the air feels wet, fitting since we are now on the ocean.

"A Reality Marble?", Alice comments while looking around.

"Correct, as I said before, this is Parade, my Reality Marble of the ship I was captain of a long time ago.", Fina-Blood Svelten smiles and reminisces about his ship.

"One hell of a Reality Marble, are you sure you can keep it active for long enough?", Nick comments, sarcastically clapping.

"But of course."

Svelten gestures behind him and up to the mast where both Altrouge and Strout stand, simply observing. "With the Princess' backup, I can hold this Marble for days. But don't be frightened, they will not interfere in our fight. They will not be necessary to end all of you here and now."

Suddenly, we hear several things climbing up the sides of the ship, and from the edge crawls over a monster. The best way to describe them are green, humanoid creatures who have scales and gills like fish. There are webbed fins on their heads, backs, arms, hands and feet and their eyes are huge, near the size of a human's but noticeably bigger and unblinking.

"Of course, I don't want to risk taking all of you at once, not yet anyway, so I'll have you deal with those first. If they don't kill you that is." He says while glancing at myself and Ritsuka, the weakest of the bunch.

"I'll fight the Dead Apostle, you all take out these monsters before we're overrun. Got it?", Nick says, not looking away from Svelten.

"Understood.", Olga complies and nods to the rest of us.

With her command, we begin to fight, well, everyone but myself and Ritsuka. He stays back to do his normal support things while I just cower back and use my Mystic Eyes to help the rest, keeping it to see things that happen right away so they don't hurt me.

"You're just going to let them fight him?", Strout asks Altrouge, both of them standing on the mast looking down.

"I'm sure he can take them. But really, I just want to watch the man with white hair. Something is wrong with him, so I want to study him."

"What is wrong with him? He seems strong but that is about it.", Strout replies.

"I just have a suspicion about him. I truly can't wrap my head around how he has Crimson Moon's blade, along with a few other things. How exactly does he know me so well, why does he care so much, and why does he seem to know Arcueid too. I just don't get it, so I'm going to study him closely."

"Very well then. I trust your instinct, Princess."

Nick manifests his sword and charges at the pirate, he has his own sword drawn, a nothing special looking pirate sword.

"Hah!"

Nick swings his sword and it's blocked by Sveltens, despite looking normal, by no means is it a normal sword. It's just like a Servant's weapon where it may look like a normal sword, but it can withstand thousands of blows with ease, not easily breaking.

"Now that I take a look at you, you're pretty hot. Any chance we could—", but Svelten is cut off.

"Sorry, I don't swing that way. Besides, I have a partner now. The two jump back and reposition.

"Such a shame. That could've been your way out of this fight you know?", Svelten taunts.

Nick smirks back. "There's no way I would give up in a fight against such a strong foe. It is you that should be honored to fight me!"

Nick rushes back in and continuously tries to kill the vampire. "I think you have your words backwards, boy. YOU should be honored to fight ME. I am Altrouge Brunestud's guard, you know?"

Nick smiles to himself. Yeah yeah, whatever you say, second rate. He thinks.

As the two continuously clash, Nick takes notice that the moon is in this Reality Marble. The moon was only a crescent, but with it shown, both of them get more power, Nick more than him due to his element and origin.

Nick reaches out his hand and blocks the pirate sword while throwing his own sword out of his right. Blood leaks from his arm, but this is what he wants. While his crimson blade flies around and attacks the vampire on its own, Nick uses his Hemomancy and forms a second sword out of blood, using that to spar the pirate once again.

"Come on, this can't be all you have!?", Nick taunts, knowing that Dead Apostles can be much stronger than just mere swordplay.

"Of course it isn't, but it wouldn't be fun if I went all out right away!"

Nick quickly jumps into the air as several cannons fire at the spot where he once stood. Catching his blade out of the air, he quickly assesses the situation.

Reality Marble, near limitless mana from Altrouge, sea monsters, swordplay and there's a pistol at his hip so that too, and now he can manifest cannons out of thin air and fire them without any sort of loading or charge period? Those cannonballs look like they pack a punch too, I need to be careful.

With Hemomancy, he forms the blood from a sword into several spikes to rain down on his opponent. They pierce the wood floor as the vampire dodges all of them so casually, but that's not all, they reform once again to bind and latch onto Svelten's arms and legs, pulling them to the side and leaving his torso wide open for attack.

Nick falls down and slashes the vampire across the chest, splitting the man from the left arm to the right torso, yet his flesh still hangs onto his leg. His body immediately heals from the wound and is put back together. "You just barely missed my heart. Nice try though, that was impressive, but we are in my Reality Marble, so of course I get an edge."

Several cannons appear behind him and the strings begin to burn as the cannons will fire in a second.

Edmond Dantes burns away one of the attacking sea monsters and then blitzes over and cuts down another three. Jeanne uses her own fire and her sword to kill all who approach her, and Haydée supports both of them with various spells. Alice fires a rifle at them, needing a few shots to take even one down, and the director is the same but with gandrs. Mash focuses on killing the ones who get too close to us with her shield. Ritsuka and I focus on supporting everyone ahead of us.

"Dammit! It just never ends!", Alice keeps pressing the attack, no matter how many are killed, they just keep coming. The creatures don't have any special abilities, they're just durable as hell and pack a punch to them.

Huh? Behind us!? My Mystic Eyes alert me to a few coming up from behind and I spin around in time to catch one bringing down its arm onto me. I raise my blade and block the fist, but I'm just too weak to hold it back and I begin to fall. I can't keep this up for even another 10 seconds!

But, luckily for me, the monster bursts into blue flames and turns to ash not long after Edmond has come to my aid.

"Are you okay?", he asks with a normal look.

"Y-yeah, I am. Thank you for that!"

Edmond nods and burns up the others that are coming from behind. "Next time you need help, just call out and I'll be right over."

"I will.", I reply. Edmond returns to the frontlines after confirming my safety and that the area is clear.

Alice runs over and crouches next to me. "Alice? What are you doing?"

"I need to reload all my guns. It's tough to do it up there." She lays out her weapons and brings out fitting magazines for each, and bullets for those that don't have a magazine such as her revolver.

"Are you holding up okay?", I ask as I touch her shoulder.

"I should ask you that. Your eyes aren't in pain, right?" She asks while still focused on her weapons.

"Yeah, my eyes are fine for now. Thanks for asking, Alice."

Alice smiles to herself as she finishes reloading. "Alright, I'm heading back out. Don't do anything reckless, okay?"

I nod my head. "I won't!"

And with that reply, Alice runs back to the front and her guns begin to fire again.

Jeanne cuts them down continuously with her sword and flames. To a Servant, these things are hardly a challenge. But, her body freezes and she senses something, a massive amount of magical energy rising out of the water just below.

"Everyone be careful! Something is coming!", she shouts out as she looks around all over the ship and overboard.

We all look around, the sea only gets harsher and a large shadow envelopes the water around the ship. And suddenly, a large tentacle shoots out of the water, then two, and three, then four, then eight. All eight tentacles surround the ship and grip onto the edges, poles, sides, and deck, seemingly trying to drag us all down into the sea.

"So the kraken has finally shown itself!", Svelten comments, not in awe or fear as we are, but more like an inevitability, like something he always expected to show and it had just arrived late.

"Kraken? Like the myth?", Nick asks while the two continue to fight.

Svelten smirks. "Heroic Spirits exist and so does magic, what makes you think the Kraken never existed?"

He makes a fair point. Anything considered a myth or legend could be considered probably real after all and not merely a story.

"Hey, Chaldea!", Svelten shouts out. "I'd take that out quickly if I were you! I, Altrouge, and Strout can survive if we're dragged down, but can you?"

"Jeanne, Edmond, can either of you deal with that!?", Ritsuka tells out over the sound of loud waves and the screams of the kraken.

"I may be able to do something, but I need to gather mana first. Hold it off for me for a bit!", Jeanne says. Ritsuka nods his head and looks behind him as the kraken surfaces and it peers at the ship's deck. It looks much like a giant octopus with gray, rough skin and glowing white eyes.

Should I summon a Servant? No, I shouldn't, I don't have many left and I need them for Altrouge. I'll trust Jeanne's judgment here. Ritsuka decides to put his faith into Jeanne and hold off the monster for a little longer.

Edmond switches his view to the kraken and bursts into flames, rocketing himself toward the monster's head and attempting to torch it. Unfortunately, his flames don't do very much as a creature of the water. He zips around it, just trying to keep it busy for long enough to allow Jeanne to use her power. We continue to attack the incoming monsters as the tentacles aren't attacking us, and only trying to slowly drag the ship down under the waves.

Jeanne absorbs mana into her sword and begins to chant. "Fallen of the battlefield…"

Mana spikes around her and Svelten takes notice, aiming a cannon right at her back.

"Not so fast!"

Mash jumps in and blocks the cannonball with her massive shield. It explodes on impact and throws her back.

"Cry out your lamentation."

Her sword glows purple and explodes with mana! A dark energy surrounds her and is absorbed into her blade.

"Master!"

She screams out, and Ritsuka knows what to do. He presses a button on his arm and Jeanne is enhanced by Ritsuka's skill, and with another press of a button, the kraken is stunned in place, unable to hope of dodging.

"Tristesse de la Vierge!"

She screams out and a slash flies forward into the kraken's head, exploding on impact to a massive proportion thanks to her Master.

But…the monster never fell. Normally, the kraken has no special abilities, but due to being a part of Svelten's Reality Marble, its durability is greatly enhanced. If anything, this only enraged it.

"Fuck.", is all Jeanne says at the sight of it, its head is already healing.

The once stationary tentacles are all removed from the boat's various surfaces and all lift into the air. The kraken is getting ready to slam them down onto the boat which would surely kill us all! My Mystic Eyes tell me that much, but I don't even need them to know.

Mash runs toward where the impact would be and deploys her Noble Phantasm in an attempt to block it, but even if she did, the force would shatter the boat and we'd fall into the water to be eaten by sea monsters.

"Edmond, Jeanne, Hayée! Take over for me against Svelten!", Nick calls out and without question, Edmond moves to intercept the vampire, following him are Haydée and Jeanne. Nick then gets near Mash and crouches down touching the ground.

His hair begins to blow around as a wind begins to pick up all around the ship.

"Everyone, hang onto something!"

I, along with everyone grab onto the side of the ship, and the Servants continue to hold off Svelten who senses something is definitely wrong.

Altrouge's attention peaks and she begins to pay extra close attention to him. The tentacles are brought down, about 2 seconds from impact.

The winds pick up even more, our feet begin to lose their footing and we are beginning to be picked up into the air. The seas roar and the waves crash over the edge of the boat soaking us all.

1 second til impact.

Nick presses his palm down and channels everything he has in this attack!

"Alt Nagel!"

He screams out the phrase and the boat is enveloped in a tornado as a pillar of wind consumes us and the kraken. The sea monsters are thrown overboard and the kraken is vaporized by the gale wind. It roars as its body is destroyed and then the winds end and the boat, along with all of us, falls down.

Nick pants heavily and looks at us to make sure we're all still there. "Hah…I'm glad that worked…"

Strout looks over to Altrouge. "Princess, are you okay? Princess?"

Altrouge remains silent, stunned at what she witnessed. Her mouth hangs slightly open and her eyes are wide as her mind races, putting the pieces all together.

The fight against Strout has halted as well. The attack even blew back all of them but they remained standing and ready to continue, but that won't be needed.

Altrouge jumps down in front of Svelten and Strout follows. We all take guard expecting a fight, but she simply stands there and stares at all of us with a glare that would paralyze anyone.

"I've figured it out.", she says.

"Figured out what?" Olga asks.

"What white hair's deal is.", she points right at Nick. "I've finally figured it out. You've been confusing me for a while, but…I'm very confident in my conclusion. He seems to know me well, too well considering I'm not a public figure. He has Brunestud of the Crimson Moon's Knight Arm: an extra bone formed into a weapon; a Knight Arm is the person it's from, an extra limb. Why is the smell of Arcueid all over you despite her not leaving her castle…"

She then looks at all of us.

"Hey, Chaldea. Are you aware that your ally is a vampire?"

We all get surprised looks on our faces, all except the Director and Edmond Dantes. But before we can even think of processing this news, Olga cuts in.

"So what if he is? He's been helping us the whole time. Even if he's a vampire, he's on our side."

Altrouge laughs at this. But, her face shows that she's not done here. "Yeah, you're right. Being a vampire doesn't mean you're evil. Van-Fem, Merem Solomon, Caubac Alcatraz, Enhance, even Svelten himself. Not all vampires are evil, some even aid humanity like the ones I mentioned. Me calling him out as a vampire means nothing when he's helping you…but do you even KNOW who he is?"

Nick's eyes narrow and he's clearly anxious about something, his body language becomes defensive.

"What if I told you that Nicholas Ketsueki is long dead. Not just because he became a vampire, but his soul isn't that of Nicholas Ketsueki. What's the word, hijack?'"

"H-huh?", is all Olga can sputter out. "That's not true at all, tell her, Nick!"

"…"

"Hey, why aren't you responding?"

We all look over to the man who we thought we knew, him standing in silence, staring at Altrouge as if just telling her to get over with it.

"No rebuttal, not even a word?", Altrouge asks. But she knows she has him cornered. "Fine then. Allow me to reveal your true identity…"

"Brunestud of the Crimson Moon."

"…"

"I'm right, aren't I?" Altrouge asks, seeing as how Nick stays silent.

He smirks. "Took you this long? I would've figured you would've been able to sense my presence or something, but I guess you can't do what Arcueid can."

Altrouge's mood immediately drops and her eyes become the eyes of a murderer.

"So, no matter what I do, I can't earn your respect? You've been against me this whole time?"

"Altrouge, no matter what you did, I would've never used you as a host. Your body is too unstable being of mixed birth. I would've guessed you would know that by now."

He then turns to all of us.

"Sorry, everyone. I lied to you all and I don't expect forgiveness or even your trust, but this was the only thing I could do."

None of us are able to respond since Altrouge gathers our attention back.

"Fine then…I'm done trying to gain your approval, I know now that it would be worthless to try. Just die already, all of you just die. Strout, Svelten, let loose."

Immediately, Strout and Svelten walk forward, a sword appearing from under Strout's cloak.

His sword is a longsword colored black, with the blade itself being a dark gray. I can't tell what he himself looks like because of his cloak. I can hear armor clanking, so he's most likely a knight of some kind due to the sword.

But surprisingly, Altrouge herself dashes forward too, but not to any of us. She leaps straight at Nick and grabs his face.

"Crawling Chaos!"

With that phrase, the two vanish into a Reality Marble, no longer involved in our fight.

"Nick!", Olga shouts out but the two vampires draw back her attention as they move forward. Jeanne Alter intercepts Strout while Edmond and Haydée begin to fight Svelten.

Ritsuka without hesitation presses two buttons on his arm and both Karna and Amakusa Shirou are summoned to the fight!

"GO ALL OUT YOU TWO! FIGHT TO KILL THEM!", Ritsuka screams out in both panic and as an order and the two obey without question as they can sense at a glance how powerful these two are.

Us humans are sent back and we take cover near the back of the ship as the Servants and the two guards fight to the death!

Amakusa throws several black keys, avoiding the Servants and aimed straight at the vampires. Strout easily bats them out of the air and Svelten dodges.

"A priest, eh?", Svelten comments, but he seems confused due to the samurai getup.

"I will deal with him."

Strout goes to move forward, about to blow past Jeanne Alter when Karna flies in and swipes his spear, creating a wave of fire so large it's as big as the ship and it blows through the vampire. But without pause, he summons several red swords from above and drops them, they all explode on contact. His eye lights up and a high powered concentration of mana shoots out and obliterates all in its path.

But when the smoke clears, Rizo-Waal Strout stands there perfectly fine, his cloak has been incinerated, but he himself hasn't been damaged in the slightest.

Rizo-Waal Strout is pretty tall, at least 190 cm, maybe more. He has long, black hair which is tied up near the bottom and has piercing red eyes. His bangs split in the middle of his forehead and his bangs are as long as his head and reach his neck. He has a lot of hair so his head seems rather curly and poofy, not what would be expected for a knight. Speaking of knights, he wears black armor with a long skirt like what Artoria Alter has, his shoulder armor sticks out to the side too. He has large black gauntlets and in his right one he holds a sword. As said earlier, the sword's blade is dark gray and the handle is black with a pointed hand guard that points out like a fork. Something about the blade feels…off though. It just doesn't sit right with me.

"All you could manage was to burn my cloak, Karna?"

Karna looks up, getting ready to fight once more. With just a glance, it's easy to tell that this opponent isn't like any other he's fought before.

Karna rushes forward, his body consumed by flames, and along with him comes Jeanne from Strout's behind. With the vampire pinned down, they thought they had him right there, but he had other plans. Strout slashes his blade through the open air in front of him toward Karna, then with the momentum he brings it down hard onto Jeanne Alter, her barely able to block the downward swing and her feet breaking the floorboards. Karna to his surprise is hit in the chest by a slash that had passed briefly before and Strout even has his back toward the hero, so how was he even attacked? Karna with his armor on took little damage, but was curious nonetheless.

In a blur, Karna reappears on top of Strout and pierces through with his spear, setting his body ablaze and watching him burn alive as Jalter jumps back. But, the fire is extinguished and Strout's wounds all heal. "I have been affected by a curse of time, therefore, I can reverse any injury I receive including death itself. You cannot kill me, Servants of Chaldea. There is a reason I have been able to survive since 10 BC."

Strout, the Black Knight has been alive since before even Jesus was said to be born. Such a fearsome foe who is over 2000 years old… Just how could we beat him?

"GO TO HELL, KNIGHT!", Jeanne Alter shouts out, drawing his attention, his face looking as emotionless as before. "Flamme Pays Étranger!" The other Noble Phantasm is cast, pillars of purple fire erupt and surround the ship along with piercing through and appearing onboard. Jeanne's body erupts in immense pain, but now's not the time to worry about such a thing!

Strout looks at the pillars unimpressed, sighing as he begins to speak again. "Pillars of flame, huh? What of it?"

"Why don't you step into one and find out?", Jeanne Alter taunts, but Strout only softly smiles as if he finds the joke amusing. "I doubt even this would be enough."

Karna and Jeanne get ready once again to attack the knight as he raises his blade into the air up high. The two Servants rush forward and begin to circle the enemy using their speed to practically glide around the vampire. They both attack as quickly as they possibly can, sending out tens of attacks at the knight who stands still, healing every injury automatically.

Strout finally mobilizes himself and swings his longsword at Jeanne first. Despite her effort to block, she is still thrown back into a wooden wall on the ship. Karna swings down his spear and is parried by Strout, but Karna flies slightly out of range of the riposte and counter attacks him with the flaming spear of the sun god.

Strout catches the spear and throws Karna away with little effort, then he spins around to deal with Jeanne. He walks forward and stares her down as Jeanne tries to get up.

"You fought well, but your Noble Phantasm was wasted."

Speaking of Noble Phantasms though, Strout can feel an intense heat from behind. He turns around and sees that Karna has activated his own Noble Phantasm to defeat the vampire, one final attack.

"Know the mercy of the King of Gods. With this single strike, I shall inflict extinction. Indra, observe me. Be reduced to cinders, Vasavi Shakti!"

Karna becomes a ball of flame as his armor melts away, an eye opens up above him and explodes, sending shockwaves across the Reality Marble as all marvel in its presence.

Strout readies his sword, raising it above his head. But, it should be too late, right?

The attack is cast and the blast of the sun falls toward Strout. If vampires are weak to the sun, then this is no doubt the best attack possible at the moment.

Strout swings his sword downward with his eyes locked onto Karna, he immediately follows up by crouching down and positioning his sword to his side with both of his hands in the handle.

""Know the mercy of the King o—what?" The beam of destruction that was once about to incinerate Strout reversed and so did the chant. Strout seemingly teleports in front of the son of the sun god and cuts through his torso. With his armor gone from the Noble Phantasm activation, there was no way for him to guard against the sword. Karna is split in half and vanishes into gold dust as his life vanishes.

Strout lands on the ground, his armor clanking as he hits the wooden deck. He turns around to where Jeanne is and readies his blade.

"Where were we?"

Jeanne has long since got up, but couldn't do anything while Karna was unleashing his technique. The two begin to clash blades, faster than the eye can see, Jeanne gives it her all to beat the vampire knight. Beat for beat for beat, every swipe is blocked by an equal slash.

Jeanne quickly materializes her flagpole and slams it into Strout, sending him flying into a pillar of fire from her earlier Noble Phantasm. Strout falls through and lands on the other side, starting to get back up but his body falters slightly.

"Hm? Interesting. What kind of fire is this? My wounds are not healing as fast as they should."

Jeanne jumps over to him in an instant.

"These are the flames that killed me in life. I'm not surprised that they can hurt you!"

Strout smiles slightly and blocks her La Pucelle swing with his long sword and with a simple parry he stabs his sword through her side. Jeanne freezes and her eyes shrink in fear and pain. On instinct, she lets out as much flame as she can to roast Strout and manages to get herself free after his arm turns to ash, regrowing not long after. Jeanne stumbles away, her hand clutched at her side and blood dripping out.

"JEANNE!", Ritsuka cries out, but to his relief, Haydée flies over and grabs her, whisking her over to our side in order for Ritsuka to heal her. She lays her down and flies back over to aid Edmond in his fight against Svelten.

Ritsuka places his hand near her wound and presses the button on his arm. Jeanne's wound begins to heal while she continues to moan in pain.

"Shit…why now…?", Jeanne says as she notices Strout calmly walking over to all of us to finish the job.

Alice draws a pistol from her Imaginary Space. "We can't take him! Ritsuka!"

"Yeah!" Ritsuka goes to summon another Servant, but our attention is drawn to Amakusa who has unleashed his Noble Phantasm to fight Svelten.

"Twin Arm Big Crunch!"

"Strout, I could use some help with this one!"

Without another word, Strout jumps up and goes to cut down the samurai, but he anticipates this and "set" Black Keys in the air beforehand. They all are launched toward the Black Knight and burrow into his skin, breaking through his armor and stunning him.

A priest? Strout thinks as he falls to the ground and the black hole is unleashed! Svelten barely manages to avoid the entire black hole, but it destroys his legs and lower body. Fatal for a normal human, but not for a vampire. Amakusa draws his sword and brings it down to cut off Svelten's head, but the cannons say otherwise as they fire shots at the samurai. He jumps out of the way, but his body begins to fade.

"Out of time, huh?" Before he goes, he throws several more black keys around the area in an attempt to at least slow down the duo.

Edmond and Haydée watch as he vanishes and go back to getting ready to fight. Even after all this, barely any damage could be done. Our best chance is killing Svelten now, but Strout is guarding him and he's barely taken any notable damage. What can we do?

But before anything else can be done, the Princess returns from her Reality Marble and looks on at our group, and then over to her two guards. "You all have done well, but, this is checkmate, Chaldea."