So, a bit has passed, but here is the new chapter translated with DeepL! I tried to correct the pronouns and pay attention to words or sentences that seemed strange to me, but you know, I'm not exactly good with this language, so report if you find errors and where so I can try to correct them!
While you're at it, let me know what you think, reviews are always appreciated! They help motivation a lot.
That said, I only have one more chapter to go over for finishing touches, so a new chapter will be out next week, then... I don't know. I hope to write on the 20th soon.
Now, a quick jump to the reviews!
- AkihitoTheExiled: more than yandere I would say... I don't know, it's Gilgamesh but female. She is practically a category in herself.
-aguastar: maybe. I have yet to decide.
-UnseenUrge: yes, Gil is dangerous
-Azai Jin: Here you go ^^
Kayneth, despite trying desperately not to show it (failing miserably), is scared-no, terrified.
Despite finding the way he decided to adopt under Sola-Ui's advice an insult to an elite magus like himself, he chose to ignore the church's order and attack the Foreigner Master while away to kill Caster.
As much as he hated to admit it, that servant was simply impossible for them to face head-on. They had no way to divide the cost of maintaining Karna between them, and Foreigner is so resilient as to make a battle of attrition impossible. Sola-Ui would be completely drained long before the enemy servant gave in, given his ability to erode the mystery and weaken Karna to the point that he would then not have enough firepower to take him down.
He was still tempted to challenge the master Einzbern to a duel.
At least until dozens of mechanical monsters intercepted them.
Of course, none of them were even close to being able to hurt Karna, let alone kill him, however, because of his presence and Jegan's number in the forest they were surrounded. The demigod was forced to protect him because every single machine was equipped with a weapon that fired noble phantasm as if they were ordinary bullets.
He had estimated that they were comparable to a B-grade anti-army, and while a single one of those was no problem when they began raining down literally dozens at a time, fast enough to make it difficult even for his servant to dodge without him as ballast, the lancer did not have a single opening to at least somewhat reduce the number of assailants, who in addition to incredible firepower also have high movability that helps them hound the Mahābhārata warrior. They were forced back to prevent Kayneth himself from being instantly obliterated by a stray shot, driving them away from the enemy base and forcing them further into the forest, miles away from civilization.
They stalled from that moment on. None of the Jegans could inflict any damage on the servant; but Karna could not leave his master, since he would die the moment he did, nor could he use any of his noble phantasms, since Keynath would be vaporized instantly due to the extreme temperature of his flames.
This lasted for almost fifteen long and torturous minutes, which the Indian hero spent dodging whatever came from them without being able to get one step closer to the enemy base since he could not even move too fast. The body of a magus, though more trained and resilient than a normal human (with or without quirk mattered little, since without intense special training the latter do not make their user too superhuman), remains human. If Karna had moved at full speed his innards would have become a milk-shake of blood, flesh, and bone.
The only reason Karna has succeeded in that feat despite the limitations is because...well, he is Karna. Even in a class where he starts at a disadvantage, he remains a servant at the pinnacle of any possible summoning. He was simply that strong and skilled.
The rain of Broken Phantasm continues until they hear a roar much louder than the others coming in the distance, definitely far beyond any explosion that had occurred in their immediate vicinity. The machines for some reason stop and because of the disruptive sacred aura that pervades the whole of Shizuoka, Caster's aberrant presence is smothered until it disappears, signaling the end of the confrontation. Karna and Kayneth turn to watch, almost mesmerized by the golden light, which can be seen despite the distance between them and the lake where the clash occurred.
When the golden particles stop falling from the sky, a second sonic boom resounds, followed by loud whistling that lasts a few seconds and a crash, accompanied by a presence so overwhelming that it drains all the color from Kayneth's face.
"Foreigner" greeted Karna, despite the rather awkward situation for him there they had just met again.
The Indian hero personally disagreed with his summoners' plan, not because it was invalid, but because he expected some measure of security from his opponent that would safeguard the master in some way. He had seemed too cautious a fellow to simply leave his summoner unattended, and so he did, even though all the enemies in the forest he perceived were surprised and repelled him.
And, although it was wishful thinking, he would have liked to continue the duel with Foreigner without anyone interfering.
But orders were orders.
And, despite everything, it seemed that someone had listened to his unspoken selfish request.
Now he just has to hope that Foreigner himself also listens to him, because he wants not only to safeguard his master's life but also to conclude the duel they had left pending last time.
Even though he is aware that it was only his ego talking.
To say that I was not amused was an understatement.
Veda warned me belatedly about Lancer's abruptly interrupted attack only after I killed Caster because she considered that information only...irrelevant. Not vital to what I was doing just before.
Reluctantly, I couldn't blame him even though I didn't like being in the dark or being caught off guard in general, as in this case.
The base I had put back into operation has a makeshift factory that I had prepared thanks to 'item creation,' 'territory creation,' and 'pioneer of the star,' and is commanded by Veda, who managed to hold Lancer back until I arrived.
One strange thing about my third noble phantasm, besides the fact that it works eerily similar to Gate of Babylon, is that while it does not contain the raw materials needed to create my things, it has all the machinery I designed and built. That single fact saved me weeks of work, allowing me to get a miniature factory up and running in the bunker.
Since I had squeezed the Einzbern pretty well before eliminating them, the base created about 120 Jegans in total with equipment and ammunition, a dozen larger drones for field resupply, and a few other things before I ran out of resources.
They were divided into three groups of 40. One went to assist at the lake (and is still there, rescuing anyone who fell victim to Caster's bullshit), while the other two stayed to protect the base where Irisviel rests after treatment. The two groups took turns firing at Karna, to allow the other to resupply and switch back to repeat the cycle.
With all the ammunition and information about the Indian hero Veda available to the Jegans, he could have held him for an hour at most, far more than enough for me to run here.
The fact that he had calculated everything, from the time it took to search for and eliminate Caster, to the masters' moves had left me quite stunned, to tell the truth, because I didn't think a proud idiot like Kayneth would stoop to using such a trick...although truth be told, I should have considered that probability. That was the same idiot who had shot (unsuccessfully killing him on the spot) Kotomine...what was the name of Kirei's father? Anyway, to prevent him from handing out any more command seals after he visited him. While his back was turned, with no chance to defend himself, just three meters away.
However, by then it was blatantly obvious that the war had also been tampered with by the church.
Of course, I had left the base in the fortified forest just for that eventuality, but I had not thought about that specific pair because I was too angry about not being able to stop Caster from making casualties to pay attention to anything else besides the important things like Irisviel's clinical case to worry about what the magus was doing that had not attacked the old castle at the same time as Kirei, as I had originally expected.
Although, in hindsight, I should have thought first to take a peek at what the El-meloi was up to. The whole fiasco of war was driving me out of my mind, between the unnecessary fighting, the mages too proud to listen, the attention I had to constantly maintain to avoid collateral damage to cities or civilians, and the preparation of battlefields...it was all happening too fast, without giving me time to prepare properly. The pace of this war was proceeding much faster than Zero.
It doesn't help that I seem to be the only one, or one of the few, who is actively trying to avoid conflicts that could claim unnecessary casualties. This is by completely ignoring the whole Angra Maniyu thing, which everyone besides me ignores, but which I have no way to stop because, again, I lack the means and time to do so. I would have liked to avoid eliminating the other servants besides Caster and Berseker, but the situations I found myself in precluded that luxury. If those left behind want to fight, I am not strong or skilled enough to defeat them without attacking to kill, especially against monsters like Karna and Gilgamesh, even though I am one of the worst possible opponents for the latter.
I am seriously beginning to think that Bloody Valentine will have something to do with the end of the war, one way or another. The date and intensity of the struggles with the current participants have brought catastrophic damage that is virtually impossible to hide with a handful of people who look after the event, but who are too incompetent to do their jobs.
"Foreigner" greeted Karna, despite the situation in which they met.
His expression remained stoic and his voice calm, but I could feel a hint of embarrassment and almost guilt with my new...empathic abilities. I didn't have time to work on them, so they kept activating randomly, often distracting me.
"Karna"
There was no warmth or anything else in my voice. Just cold indifference. Frankly, I don't care either way why they decided to move like this at this point. Since apparently no one, except perhaps Iskandar, was going to listen to my warnings it is pointless to keep trying. I will kill all the remaining servants and destroy the grail as soon as it manifests itself with Excalibur, removing as many restrictions as I can to make sure that the cursed sludge that will possibly gush out is exorcised without a chance to spread.
I wield the proto-buster sword, ready to fight.
Kayneth stiffens behind Karna, who takes a defensive stance.
"You seem more bloodthirsty today since our last encounter," notes the albino warrior, "After your confrontation with Caster and use of what was surely your noble phantasm, are you sure you can face me with such ferocity?"
"Irrelevant. I don't even need a master to support me, I'm perfectly capable of self-empowerment," I reply instead of immediately attacking solely and exclusively because it's Karna, and he hasn't done anything to start the confrontation yet.
If it had been someone else I wouldn't have even wasted time on pleasantries, I would have simply killed the master to cripple the servant and then killed him as well. The only reason I didn't do that is because of the respect I have for Karna, otherwise, I would have treated him as I did the Noumu, All for one, or whoever else got in my way so far.
"Before we begin this battle, I have a request," Karna announced.
I stare at him for a few wary moments, but I still decide to listen to him one last time, despite my intentions.
"Namely?" I ask after a few moments.
"Let my master go," the hero of charity speaks, causing Kayneth to gasp, who finally stops choking on air as he stares at me in terror and shifts his gaze to his servant "If we fight, needless to say, he will die instantly simply by standing too close. If it should be me who falls, don't go after my master or his wife unless they get involved in the war again. If it should be you who perishes, I will carry out your wish and destroy the grail. Of course, I will extend the same courtesy to your master and his associates. Will you accept my request for a duel?"
Kayneth was halfway between outraged and furious at Karna's proposal, but before he could even open his mouth, I let out a hint of the killer instinct I was barely holding back, and he fell on his ass with a pathetic 'eek.
Maybe then he will understand that there is no room for the likes of him among Karna and me.
"...Why this proposal?" I ask puzzled, even though I had not let my guard down for a second "If it was just to protect your summoner I could even understand it, but why pursue my goal?"
"Since you know who I am, you know my history and also my ability to perceive truth from people," replied the albino, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world "If you believe the threat is real and can harm innocent people, I will destroy it myself. Whether it's as a Kshatriya, or as a heroic spirit, for me it's about pride. Do you find that strange?"
I stared at him for a moment, almost startled by his words. They are...the intentions I expected from him, I guess. However, I can't hide the fact that part of me thought he was going to come out with something like 'even if you think it's true, it doesn't mean it is,' because his skill doesn't tell him whether what I believe is real is real or is a figment of my imagination. Did he phrase it that way just to give his master an escape route in case we come to blows?
No, it wasn't just that, although it makes sense for a soldier to do that.
Karna has already done something like that in Apocrypha. Although he could finish Sieg, he gave him time to recover with an excuse, no matter how much he believed it, asking Frankenstein's master to save the masters poisoned by Semiramis. He wanted to end the duel with Siegfried, but also save those who needed help, despite the situation he was in.
"Good," I reply after pondering for a moment, "I agree if your master will sign a geis."
"What is a geis?" asks Karna, cautious but curious.
"An inviolable contract that binds itself to the soul of the person who signs it," I reply, summarizing what it does "The conditions will be as we have decided. As much as I would like to be able to trust your word, our masters have command spells to force us to obey, so I don't want to take any chances in case they use them."
"I see. A reasonable concern," he agrees "What does violating a Geis entail?"
"Usually the death of anyone who violates the agreements, either directly or indirectly depending on how you spell it."
'Foreigner-!'
'Silence' I interrupted Kiritsugu before he could even breathe 'I warned you that the grail had to be destroyed. To continue to delude yourself was your mistake'
'With this command spell-'
I didn't even let him finish that thought. With a command initiated by the Alaya-vijana, the nano suits emit a pulse that paralyzes every muscle of both Kiritsugu and Maiya.
The greatest weakness of the command spells is that they must be spoken aloud to activate them. With his muscles completely locked, Kiritsugu cannot speak to do so. The idiot hadn't even closed the connection before he started speaking, letting me know in advance what he was going to do.
Not that it would have changed anything anyway.
Veda constantly monitors the suits, so if he had tried it in any other situation unless it was an 'approved' command so to speak, Kiritsugu would have been blocked by the nano suit. Or silenced in some other way, like with a bullet to the vocal cords.
Maiya, on the other hand, is in the base, watching over Irisviel, since she knew of her condition. I had notified the end of the body-switching treatment when I left to face Caster, informing both her and her lover, but the woman was the only one to show up for the time being, probably precisely because of the latter's order. Kiritsugu was in a hotel in town, probably arranging something with the information she had, given the constant changes in the field.
I had also paralyzed her to make sure she did not kill Kayneth as in zero.
"Master, this is the only way you can get out of this alive" Karna informs Kayneth without much ado "Accept the Geis, otherwise I cannot guarantee your protection, or that of your wife."
Kayneth, realizing that he simply has no room to say or do anything amid two heroic spirits, because he is simply too insignificant in comparison to be able to object in any way that it would not end in his death, clenched his teeth as he lowered his head.
"All right..." was the only thing he could say in this situation.
Preparing the parchment for a Self-Geis Scroll is stupidly simple. You take a sheet of paper, add users' blood to the ink, write on the conditions, and sign. There is no special or special element in its preparation, other than a small magic circle to make the curse activate and bind it to the magic crest.
I ignored Kiritsugu's screams the whole time as I signed the contract that stated:
- Foreigner will have Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi safely removed from the duel site so as not to be an obstacle to the Servants.
- The winner of the duel will not harm the vanquished party, either directly or indirectly, for the rest of his life (in this case we are talking about the masters), unless the vanquished party is employed again during the ongoing Holy Grail War.
- The contract extends to all associates of both parties. The contractors will not be able to target anyone associated with Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi and Emiya Kiritsugu who have not voluntarily re-employed in the conflict.
- The two sides will no longer be able to engage in new conflicts, direct or indirect, once the ritual is concluded.
- Lancer will have to destroy the grail in case of victory.
- The defeated side will consume all command seals, and will not be able to acquire any more.
A couple of adjustments to the conditions I placed them not only to protect Illya, Liz, and Sella in case either side found ways around the restriction on causing damage to either side, but to ensure that they would not be targeted by further reprisals after all is said and done.
We had to wait only a few minutes for Kayneth to be transported by a Jegan to his temporary residence. At first, he had no complaints about it, but after I pointed out to him that regardless of how my duel with Lancer would end it would not matter, he stopped complaining. If Karna had won, well, he's at his base; whereas if I win, he can just pick up his bags directly and leave, without the hassle of having to walk back to town because I wouldn't be his driver.
The fact remains that he would not have survived by simply staying some distance from the site of the confrontation. A stray shot could have killed him even miles away.
In any case, he just wanted to air his mouth and make demands to soothe his wounded ego, but I didn't care enough to listen to him, so Veda picked him up and unceremoniously dumped him where he belonged.
I had made the other Jegans retreat as well, letting them back into the fortified bunker underground. They would have been useless now that it was just the two of us here. However, those few minutes allowed me to calm down and regain a modicum of clarity.
"My master has reached his residence," Karna informs me, although I already knew since it was one of my machines that brought him there, "I owe you thanks. Both because I now have one less burden on my shoulders, and for listening to my request despite having the perfect opportunity to eliminate us both."
"...I hope it's worth it," I sigh, mentally tired and frustrated with events gone awry one after another.
Too much wasted time and useless victims. There was no valid motivation for the loss of lives without purpose, especially not of children who had not made it to double digits in age...
"Now that you have honored your part of the bargain, we can begin," Karna announces, getting into position "Know that although you do not see yourself as such, I consider you a worthy warrior. As such, I will face you by giving my best, no matter what happens next!"
I also take a stand, suppressing all my emotions and anything that might distract me now.
"I have ambivalent thoughts about being called a warrior, but that's okay," I reluctantly admit, "Tonight will go as it should."
And I mean it. On the one hand, I don't like to fight, I only learned because I had, to protect myself and the people I care about. I derive no joy or enjoyment from the idea or the action itself. It is simply a thankless task that fell to me, which, however, I could not fail for any reason in the world, so I could not afford to be deficient.
Not to mention the agreement I had made with Scathach for his teachings.
On the other hand, to be recognized with such reverence by a figure like Karna? I admit it gives a big boost to both my self-esteem and my mood, enough to be able to ignore everything wrong, from my arrival here to the war itself, if only for a brief moment.
There was an almost comfortable silence as I realized that this battle would be over in a flash now that the servant in front of me knew about 'Erosion of Mystery'.
A leaf falls from a tree and touches the ground, right between Karna and me.
Then we move.
I activate trans-am without hesitating a second and launch myself at full speed against Lancer.
Karna uses mana burst to disproportionately increase his speed and the destructive power of her spear.
Our weapons cross and the earth shakes, being shaken as if an earthquake intended to open a chasm beneath us and yes splits, creating a 'miniature' crater.
The shock waves and flames obliterate the forest around us, ripping everything from the ground and burning anything that could not withstand the extreme temperatures.
I felt the results on my bones and gritted my teeth as they squeaked from the stress despite my armor, enhanced body, and reinforcement.
I swung my sword, mowing down the flames, and Karna was thrown away because of the force of the blow. Not that he had charged it much. The wound he had made was little for a warrior of his caliber; he could ignore it as if it were a scratch, although it had left a deep cut on his left side.
The alarms on my armor sounded, but I did not move in time to avoid whatever was coming.
I used the bit-staves to form a shield above me and raised the GN field to its maximum capacity.
A dozen crimson spears collide against them and go through both, destroying my swarm of drones, and once they hit me they detonate. The reaction that follows is similar to the eruption of a volcano. The earth is shaken violently each time a spear falls, and a cloud of smoke and flames rises toward the sky.
I, in the middle of the sunken crater, ignore the excruciating pain as I feel my skin burning from the outside temperature, which has exceeded hundreds of thousands of degrees.
But I did not stop. I used a GN burst, indifferent to the cloud of ash covering the area where a forest once stood. The giant ethereal blade strikes Karna, who uses his armor plus mana burst to try to cushion a blow he could not have avoided, getting caught in the middle.
A small canyon opens up in his path as he deflates.
It was only for a second, but I saw something flash by and moved with a minimum of instinct, avoiding a white laser the size of a tennis ball. It only grazed my shoulder strap, but once again, the alarms in my armor sound, indicating malfunctions in that area, but I have no time to check the damage.
Whatever their extent, I feel Avalon activate and immediately repair the charred muscles almost to the bone of what was left of my left shoulder.
Giving him no time to do anything else, I charge Karna one more time, ignoring the dust explosion behind me. Even though he had just finished releasing his attack, Karna still mostly blocked my blade with the shaft of his weapon, preventing me from sinking it past his collarbone when I ran into him at full speed, though I managed to shatter it.
He pushes me away, but I try not to give it to him, and with another broadsword I break his unbalanced guard, ripping through his chest. He managed to avoid being sliced in two by all the GN particles I slid in my blade, only and exclusively because he shot off with a mana burst starting from his feet simulating a booster, to put space between me and him.
"Brahmastra Kundala!"
The golden spear in Karna's hand catches fire as he pours such a large amount of mana into it that its flames turn white, and it falls on me like a skyscraper-sized tower of fire.
Without the bit-staves, I had to use reinforcement to push the proto-buster sword almost to the breaking point to counter now that the Indian hero was not holding back as at the docks last time, and I released another GN Burst to stop the incoming attack that I would not be able to dodge.
Cutting Karna's attack in two, with all that concentrated fiery mana suddenly decompressed, an explosion comparable to a nuclear weapon in both heat and impact occurs.
My armor would have held up even then, but without a way to disperse the heat that was penetrating, in order not to be burned alive I had to activate Avalon's bounded field. Even if I had not burned to death it would still have taken me a few seconds to regenerate, which with such an opponent was still too much, no matter how fast I would recover.
I released a second attack that caught Karna in the air at the exact moment he was about to retract his arm after throwing her weapon.
He tries to protect himself again as the GN burst's ethereal blade, but he fails to do so as before. I was faster than him and my counterattack pinned him to the ground, exploding similarly. But I won't stop. I release a third attack, which hits him while he is on the ground, but which overloads the GN power lines, rendering them useless indefinitely.
My sensors reveal a mana spike unprecedented since I was summoned, unlike anything I had picked up in our exchanges.
"As I figured, if I want to defeat you, I must do better than that," Karna announces, as his body is covered in flames and his armor falls apart "Therefore, I need an attack that will bring absolute destruction!"
Trans-am goes off before I can snap at him to strike.
Not by my choice, nor by lack of power. It was an emergency shutdown because of internal damage to the GN power lines, which failed to redirect particle influx to the GN condensers and was causing an overload that would have shut down the Astrea if left as it was.
A diagram of a sun with an eye in the center flashes as a spear appears in front of Karna.
The mere presence of that divine construct causes a firestorm to surpass a million degrees instantly, liquefying the earth and creating a pit similar to the mouth of an active volcano as the Indian hero levitates skyward, taking altitude.
With the opportunity to finish him missed, I discarded the proto-buster sword, which would no longer suffice at this point, to summon Excalibur.
"Warrior from the future, I would like to know your name," Karna asks politely, as the night sky burns from the weapon Indra gave the warrior in life, in preparation for the release of his noble phantasm.
"Kurogane Jack" I reply, not caring that I have revealed my real name at this point "Seal Thirteen: Decision start!"
"Splendid!" replies the hero of charity, showing a modicum of elation at the climax of our confrontation "Not counting my respect for the worthy rival I have found in this second life, I offer you my most powerful attack!"
"Bedivere, Palamedes, Lancelot, Galahad, Gaheris, Gareth, Agravain, Kay, Gawain, Arthur!" I call all the seals of the round table to face what is to come, who could have responded in this situation?
Karna smiles as he sees Excalibur and its light, while countless particles of gold levitate in my direction, seeing my most powerful noble phantasm finally in first person.
"You know the mercy of the King of the Gods! " announces the son of Surya, as the wing-shaped armor on his back, the only remnant of the set after removing everything else, flares up and unfolds to its full length.
"This is a battle to save the world!"
There had been no approval this time, for some reason, just vague jingle-like sounds in my ears. I only felt my sword getting lighter the very moment I called out the name of the king of knights. Arthur/Artoria responds only and exclusively when humanity as a whole is in danger. Everyone else simply has no reason to refuse my request if it comes to that point.
Karna is, unfortunately, an obstacle to my goal of eliminating the threat that threatens to exterminate all life on Earth.
"With this single blow, you will become extinct!" Karna points the spear at me as flames gather on the ring between the wings and converge in the spear "You will burn to ashes! Vasavi Shakti! (O' Sun, Abide to Death)"
The aura that was previously released wildly around the blade of the holy sword reached a critical point, lighting up to the point that its structure was no longer visible underneath.
"Excalibur! (Sword of Promised Victory)"
Just as Karna invokes the true name of his last Noble Phantasm, firing the torrent of heat that crashes through the earth like lightning; I swing the Last Phantasm at him, ripping through the air with a huge slash that soars skyward.
Our attacks met in midair, releasing a very violent roar that I am sure was heard far and wide throughout Japan.
However, that clash was decided the moment it began.
Vasavi Shakti, despite its anti-deity properties and brute power that would surely give Excalibur a run for its money with seven restrictions removed, could do nothing against the holy sword after I released ten.
The impact dampened the rising speed of the blade of light.
It even resisted for a few moments and held its position, thanks to the power and sheer stubbornness of the Indian hero.
However, it did not stop the advance of my Noble Phantasm. Even with the power to slay gods and annihilate anything with a single powerful blow, Excalibur is unlike any other Noble Phantasm.
It is the shining holy sword that saves the planet. A golden blade that repels virtually any evil, built to defeat an external enemy that destroys planets.
It is the strongest illusion. A drop of the earth's light. Spanning every age, it is the very unfulfilled dream of many humans.
Vasavi Shakti cannot win against it and is crossed by the pillar of light that rises skyward, scattering its flames.
When the din, light, wind, and fire stop raging on what was once a forest, golden lights fall like snowflakes from the sky, ignoring the deafening silence that had fallen for a few moments.
I also see a body fall and smash just outside the crater...which is about the size of a city at this point.
It was a good thing we were in the middle of nowhere, otherwise the damage...
Starting the thrusters of the worn-out Astrea, I reach Karna.
Or what's left of him.
Virtually everything below the upper abdominals is gone. Of whole, only his right arm remained, with which he wielded his shattered spear.
"It's not...enough, huh..." notes Karna usefully, somehow still able to speak even though his body was beginning to flicker "I ask forgiveness...for forcing you into this...because of my ego."
"You...are bullshit, you know that?" I ask as I exhale exhaustedly, definitely out of breath from those not even two total minutes of fighting that nonetheless pushed me to the limit, or at least extremely close. Avalon was already working on getting me back to full fitness, but the fact that I almost exhausted my 'stamina' is absurd in itself. I didn't think it was possible with my near-instantaneous regeneration, and it's just yet another point on the list of absurd things the charity hero is capable of "How are you still alive? Relatively speaking, at least."
It wasn't a taunt, just my genuine curiosity.
"Tenacity" he replies with a satisfied smile, despite his state "We clashed without holding back...now, you can go finish your battle. Protect who you must...to the best of your ability, just as you did tonight...I am sure you will succeed..."
At the end of her pep talk, more or less, Karna's expression relaxes as his body disappears as if it never existed, leaving behind only particles of mana.
"Well, now I just have a couple of things to do tonight," I say to myself as I take off to pick up Iri and Miya while Veda moves to dismantle and move the base.
'Is it good?' asks Raider curiously telepathically, although the slightly hungry tone was heard despite trying not to sound too eager for food.
"Nah, it's awful" Waver replied with a grimace as he swallowed the rice, "Japanese food has never fallen so low."
'Boy, you passed right by singing to Okomiyaki Shouki on your way to the station' sighs Iskandar as he hears his master's complaints about the bland bento 'Their mondayaki is a sight. It's a pity you didn't get some...'
"If you want to eat there again, then get your strength back quickly and go" Waver sighed, not wanting yet another life lesson from his servant.
He had had enough for the next twenty lifetimes with all the complaints the King of Conquerors had about him. Not that he couldn't understand it, although he would never admit it. It had been enough for him to look at the magnitude of the event he had meddled in to give him the metaphorical (and literal in some cases) slap in the face he needed to realize that right now, he was nowhere near living up to his ambition, no matter how much he wanted to prove himself worthy of participating in the Grail War.
That and all the lectures about life that Rider had given him.
Then again, when the yardstick was literal legends that wrote history, despite his attitude he could hardly put on airs or try to inflate his ego.
Especially not after the night before.
Because the whole reason for their excursion was not to spend a pleasant day in nature, but to go to the place where the young magus had summoned his servant and take advantage of his ley lines to recharge him.
He didn't need them extremely, but to activate Ionioi Hetairoi had used a lot of mana compared to the normal patrols they had made, and so far Iskandar had used his reserves rather than feeding through Waver. Of course, he hadn't used even 30% of the total from his summoning, since they had only fought once (if you ignore the way they used his wagon to run over Caster's monsters while looking for him before he ranted at the river).
"I'll be here all day sleeping, so take all the magic energy you need if it doesn't kill me. You should recover quickly like this," Waver says, as he finishes the second bento, "Why the rush all of a sudden?"
'I have a vague feeling that this war will not come to an end this week' replies the servant seriously 'Maybe it will even close tonight if Foreigner has decided not to play along anymore'
Waver feels a chill run through his spine when that servant is mentioned.
Although he had tried to stop the war before hostilities began, he ended up single-handedly killing virtually all the servants who had fallen in the past few days. Even Karna did not get away with it against him. He had even managed to stop a noble phantasm that had more or less the effect of a miniature supernova.
"Seriously, what monstrosity did the Einzbern conjure up?" the Englishman murmured horrified, barely swallowing another mouthful when his stomach clenched at the memory of the sword cutting through the burning sky "His very presence should be against the rules..."
After Lancer had fallen, the war overseer had notified Kayneth's official withdrawal...shortly before the church was destroyed by the Foreigner himself, killing him in the process.
Shortly after the battle between his old teacher and the German family, Shizuoka began to teem with Yokai from almost every faction and exorcists from the five clans, who began to investigate what was going on.
'This whole war has been strange, boy,' warns Iskandar rather annoyed by the situation 'Foreigner had warned everyone about the irregularities, but no one listened and looked at what happened...'
The damage had been catastrophic. The place where the clash between Lancer and Foreigner had taken place looked as if a meteorite had fallen instead of being the place where the duel was held. Between heat, shock waves, earthquakes, and the winds that seemed like the anticipation of armageddon or something, the cities near the site of the clash suffered all the effects of a natural disaster on a scale hardly comparable to recent events.
Disruption of almost all services, damage caused by side effects of the fighting such as property damage, infrastructure collapse and more had tarred surrounding places for miles from the epicenter.
The only boon was that Foreigner had brought the clash to the middle of nowhere, at least limiting the casualties of his battle with Lancer to numerous wounded rather than dead. It had been a miracle that there had not been a single civilian casualty despite the scale of their duel.
"Yet, despite knowing that he is by no means a normal opponent, do you still want to face him?" asks Waver, nervous about facing him.
'Yes' Iskandar confirms without much ado.
"Why? He could kill you!" the magus points out to him, less upset than he should be by his servant's answer.
'As in...I remembered things from seeing him in action against Caster, although it could be a side effect of Excalibur...that vision I had I mean' the servant replies somewhat abstractly, not knowing how to express clearly what he saw 'Maybe it was my impression, but that sword seemed more of a burden than a blessing, considering how reluctant he was to use it. I want to ascertain what I saw and hear the story directly from Foreigner, after all, we never had a chance to talk'
"What the heck does that mean?" murmurs Waver before taking a sleeping pill and getting into his sleeping bag.
'I told you, it's complicated' sighs Iskandar 'Come on, now sleep. Helping me regain my strength is your current battle, boy, so don't linger any longer'
"Bah, have it your way" murmurs Waver, settling down and closing his eyes.
It didn't matter what he thought about it anyway, Iskandar would be off like a train on his way, no ifs or buts, as he had been doing since summoning him. Trying to dissuade him would do no good, he knew, so he didn't even try to argue with him about it.
The silence in Thosaka Manor could be mistaken for what one might find in a cemetery.
Tokiomi could do nothing but stare at the autopsy results in front of him.
Of his wife and daughter to be exact.
Foreigner, or rather, one of his machines after the battle with Lancer had shown up at his door with two body bags containing disfigured bodies.
At first, he thought it was a sick joke and had almost asked Gilgamesh to get rid of the unwelcome guest, but the machine had then played a prerecorded message.
One of the kidnapped children was a classmate and friend of Rin's. After several funerals that she guessed were the fault of the Grail War, she decided to run away at night to search for her friend after she was reported missing. She thus set out for the city at night by train.
Her mother, upon finding the message with her daughter's intentions, immediately pursued her, but it was already too late.
Rin, using the compass she had given him just before she left to go to her grandparents for her search, unfortunately found her target, Ryuunosuke Uryuu. She had followed him to one of his hiding places and had broken control over the children through a bracelet created by Caster.
Instead of fleeing after freeing the peers and alerting the authorities, she naively pursued the master thinking she could catch him, only to be attacked by one of the servant creatures.
Aoi found her as this was happening, but she was not a magus or a fighter. She was captured as well.
The night Caster went on his rampage, after torturing the two captives in unspeakable ways for reasons only he knew, he used them as material for his latest blasphemous ritual.
Aoi, because of the magical factor of Zenjou, could drastically enhance her offspring. Caster had used her womb to create the mutated monster that had fought Foreigner and Rider. Aoi's body was used as a tertiary core, which still connected to the monster and empowered the main and secondary cores, namely Gilles and Rin so that the monster had an inordinate amount of mana at its disposal and could maintain itself and its abilities without any problems while empowering every creature it generated and itself when it ate them for food.
The bodies that had been recovered were damaged to the point of being unrecognizable, so under Kirei's advice he had an acquaintance of his take a DNA test, if only to remove any possible doubt that might distract him now that the war was in its final stages.
Now not only did he have proof that he had lost his wife and daughter, but shortly after Lancer's death, Foreigner also dared to attack the church overseeing the Grail War, killing Rasei!
In a corner of his mind, a part of him wondered what happened to Sakura after Foreigner attacked the Matou...
"This is not permissible..." muttered the sole survivor of the Thosaka family "Such a thing is not permissible!"
In a fit of rage, he slams a fist on the desk, leaving a crack on the mahogany impeccable until recently.
Gilgamesh and Kirei look at the broken man with seemingly different attitudes, but very similar ideas.
Gilgamesh was enjoying the comedy of a magus reputedly impeccable falling apart. She was honestly curious if the boring vassal who summoned her would finally get off his ass from the chair and start doing something. Anything other than sitting in his basement and plotting in the shadows.
There was a limit to how long the King of Heroes could be patient before she lost interest by seeing him tergiversate, under the guise of studying his opponents to create a plan that would lead him to victory.
Now she is the only woman in the group, she is curious to see how Tokiomi would react to her loss.
As for Kirei
As much as he would never admit it to himself or others, he is happy but also sad.
Is he sad because his father died? Yes, of course, he is. Not because he was killed, but because he could not do it with his own hands. Just as it happened with his wife.
He is happy at the moment, though, because his esteemed teacher is squirming in his chair in despair, almost on the verge of tears in front of them. He finds the scene so funny that a laugh almost escapes from his mouth. He managed at the last to stop it, more or less, letting out a kind of strange choked snort as he tried to remain impassive.
That's why, to maintain his good humor, he decided to stifle what little annoyance he felt in another way.
Turning the desk around, he flanked his master and put a hand on his back, trying to be comfortable in his awkward way.
"Don't worry, shishou. They were all good-hearted people, so the Lord will welcome them with open arms to heaven."
The priest's unusually emotional words catch the magus off guard, who did not expect this at all.
"Kirei, you-Gaahk?!"
Just as she did not expect his backstab.
With an extremely fluid movement derived from countless training and field experience, he pulls three black keys out of his sleeve, aimed straight at his organs, and draws his blades, piercing his heart and lungs.
In an equally fluid motion, he pulls the sacred weapons from Tokiomi's back, ripping out his organs.
"However, I can't say the same for you," Kirei confesses, as a smile makes its way from his lips.
He stared elatedly at the refined magus as he fell from his chair, trying to gasp for air or scream as life slowly drained from his eyes. He slumped rather quickly, much to his disappointment, but at the very least he had a brief and interesting spectacle watching his teacher trudge and flail for a way to save his life as despair flooded through him as death began to claim him.
Should he have done it so that he would die more slowly? Would he have found his futile struggles more entertaining as he bled out more slowly instead of in less than a minute? Now he was curious to find out how she would have reacted if she had killed him slowly in other ways.
"Shishou, you're just like my father," Kirei taunted him with some satisfaction, still feeling the exhilaration coursing through him as he watched almost spellbound as Tokiomi's blood stained the room's prized floor "He never understood me, even in his last moments."
"Umph, what a boring end" Gilgamesh comments as she approaches the other side of the desk to better observe the scene "Look how silly his dying face looks"
"He had her servant a few feet away from him, I don't blame him for letting his guard down" the priest replies with a satisfied smile.
"And so you learned to make jokes. This progress is worthy of praise," Gilgamesh comments amused "Well, Kirei? Do you feel a little better after failing to kill your father?"
"You have no qualms about this, King of Heroes, Gilgamesh?" the false priest asks rhetorically "Not that he wouldn't have betrayed you in the end anyway, however, I'm surprised you let me do it without your consent."
"Mn?" the red-eyed demi-goddess looks at him in curiosity.
"Oh, right, I didn't tell you about that?" comments Kirei casually "I was planning to do it to save my life once I officially re-enter this war, but I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore."
"Oh? What exactly were you planning to trade your life for?" the king of heroes asks as a spark of amusement and curiosity shines in his eyes.
Kirei leans over the desk to use it as a makeshift chair on the non-blood-stained side.
"The Grail's ultimate goal is to open a passage to the root, but to do so it needs the power of the seven heroic spirits summoned for war," Kirei briefly explains as he wipes his weapons with a cloth "All seven. That's why my teacher wanted to hold on to the command magics. He needed them to order you to commit suicide once the last master-servant pair fell."
"Fuahahaahah" That revelation elicited an even more amused reaction from humanity's oldest king "That's a good one! Tokiomi wanted to betray me! Kahahahaah-"
"You don't seem particularly upset," the priest noted, "Or angry."
"-ahahah! Well, how could I be?" asks Gilgamesh, wiping away a tear in amusement "That man was so boring that practically anything he did would have been better than nothing! At least I have to give him credit for his courage if nothing else! Fuhahaha!"
"Well, in the end, my master was a magus to the core," says Kirei "He may worship a heroic spirit, but he has no illusions about where his priorities lie."
"Well, in the end, it was good for a laugh, if nothing else" comments Gilgamesh casually "Although by killing him you took away the source from which I get my mana supply. How do you intend to make up for this act of rebellion, Kirei?"
The priest inclines his head, considering the joking question, before looking at his hand, where the command seals had reappeared the night before.
"I have a viable alternative."
"I'm sure you do," Gilgamesh comments with a snort, becoming slightly serious again "Keep entertaining me Kirei, and eventually I will let you keep that grail you so desire as a reward."
"That sounds like a reasonable request."
I looked out of 'The Villa & Barrel Lounge,' a 4-star hotel near the Mochimune porty spa.
The reason? My battle with Karna had attracted too much attention, causing Yokai and exorcists to swoop in on the scene, even though they arrived only an hour after the event. More than enough time to throw everything that might lead to me inside Celestial Being Head, take the two women into the bunker and get the hell out of there.
"Foreigner, madam has awakened."
I turn to look at the mercenary when she calls my name, so I set off in her wake to visit my latest patient...or is it my first since I am in a moment before my rebirth? Whatever, it makes little difference. I had asked Maiya to notify me when Irisviel woke up.
We enter her room just as she sits up to stretch, stretching her arms above her head, and then rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Morning..." she murmurs, yawning the words dazedly.
Kiritsugu is sitting in a chair beside the bed, without his nano-suit, looking at Irisviel and then at her old body, floating in a cylindrical container filled with a product the Einzbern used to create Homunculus bodies. The name is so strange that I won't even try to think of it; it would probably entwine my brain even trying.
I had put it there to keep the Grail container from deteriorating, but, since it technically works, I can't store it with my noble phantasm because it can't contain living things. Since I didn't have time to waste, I simply loaded it on my shoulder and carried it around discreetly, metaphorically speaking. I used a cloaked vehicle to leave the bunker before more unwanted guests arrived. I didn't want to confront them because the Astrea needed repairs.
It is currently in the Assault Container, cloaked and parked outside the hotel.
"How are you doing? Do you have nausea, dizziness, motor problems, or other physiological issues at the moment?" I asked using the structural analysis to see if everything was working well "There shouldn't be any abnormalities, but tell me if anything is wrong or you feel anything strange."
"Mn? No, physically I'm fine" Irisviel replies in her pajamas, now fully awake "In fact, I feel almost better than when I was in my old body if I ignore the strange sense of...I don't know how to describe it. It's like I'm not synchronized with my body. I mean, I feel it and it moves the way I want it to, but it still feels weird."
"Yes, it tends to happen when you change bodies," I confirm from what little I know, "As you move that feeling will fade. Is there anything else?"
Kuro had given such an explanation for the first one, and it lasted a week for her, so I think she'll be fine.
"...I had a strange dream," Iri confesses, tapping a finger on her chin, looking distant "I was awake, but I couldn't feel or do anything. I was just...floating in the water, I think. I couldn't hear, see, speak, or move. It was disorienting until I fell back asleep."
"That's normal, too," I reassure her as she eerily describes the experience of no longer having a physical body and then being reborn "It happened because your consciousness was digitized and moved to another container before being put into a new body. I didn't have enough time to do a mind space or something like that."
Assuming and not conceding that it was possible? I hadn't tested the procedure enough times to try, since this was only the second time and I didn't want to experiment on Illya and Kuro's mother.
"Honestly, it was really strange and a bit unpleasant, but I'm fine now!" replied Iri cheerfully with a relaxed smile "...although the sight is strange" she concluded, pointing to her old body in the corner of the room.
"I've kept it handy to move you again, in case there was any unforeseen situation, but it looks like there's no need for it after all" I explain, somewhat reassured that everything had gone right for the first time since my arrival here "I'll put it away in a while, after you get used to your new body. You never know."
"You're thinking too much about it," the albino woman chided me good-naturedly. "Even with such a…unique procedure, I can understand the anxiety."
Yes, what I had done touched on one of the known mechanisms of the third witchcraft more or less, even if I don't fully understand souls. From a vague idea of how it works and influences the body and/or personality, I built a machine to absorb it, convert it into data, and upload it to a physical memory to insert into an implant.
Now that I think about it, haven't I done something closer to digitizing souls like the Moon Cell than Heaven's Feel?
Maybe. I remember looking at Extra because it had a fluffy tail, but I don't remember much of it to be honest. I had read the English version, but since I didn't know the language very well at the time, I had almost no dialogue or story left in my memory.
"Foreigner?"
"Mmm?" I turned my attention back to Irisviel, who was staring at me a little worried.
"What will happen now?" she asks "My old body still contains the Grail, I can feel it, but now that I feel it from the outside, I notice that there is something strange"
This finally prompted Kiritsugu to speak.
"What do you mean, Iri?"
"The lesser Grail is connected to the greater Grail, so feeling the connection was normal since it has always been inside me" the homunculus tries to explain with a slightly worried tone "The connection I feel now is… muffled. Probably because the only thing connecting me to it now are some emergency programs inserted into my initial programming. It could be nothing, but..."
"What does that mean?" asks the magus killer, urging her to speak.
The woman turns to me.
"You said that the Grail was contaminated" It wasn't a question "How can you be so sure?"
Everyone's attention was on me now, making me sigh, as at this point I didn't even know if I should be happy or not now that someone was finally listening to me.
"The third Grail War took place during World War II before it was suspended due to the advent of quirks, however, Jubstacheit von Einzbern couldn't stand that on the third attempt they still hadn't recovered the Heaven's Feel, so instead of summoning Berserker he called Angra Maniyu in the Avenger class" I explain the backstory to give some context "That brought several problems. To use an Extra class they had to directly tamper with the Grail because normally it would have prevented them from doing such a thing. Avenger was the first to be defeated and assimilated, but since he wasn't a heroic spirit, the Grail didn't recognize him and was contaminated"
"How far did this contamination go?" Irisviel asks a little worried "Because I feel an invasive presence. It can't reach me, but I know it exists now. It's like it's trying to reach me… I even had a weird dream the day before you operated on me…"
Kiritsugu's impassive mask cracks, becoming a worried frown.
"It was probably trying to affect your consciousness or assimilate it through the Lesser Grail," I say, remembering that he did something similar in Zero. "Your consciousness was supposed to be assimilated by the Lesser Grail after your eventual death though… then again, unlike a normal war, it's had over 200 years to do its thing inside the Greater Grail, so I don't know what it's capable of at this point."
Irisviel's hands tighten on the blankets, definitely nervous and scared.
"Can you do something?"
I blink as Kiritsugu looks at me and speaks to me.
So far we haven't even had a real conversation. I had to annoy him to the point of exasperation just to get him to say a few words. Usually, it would lead to an argument and then an abrupt interruption.
But frankly, I have no idea how to stop the contamination if it manages to reach Irisviel even when she is in a new body, without the lesser Grail. Not enough on the subject to be able to diagnose and find a solution.
So I did the only thing I could do.
I put a hand on my chest and called Avalon.
The gold particles flow out of me, while the scabbard converts into a conceptual weapon in my body and returns to its physical form.
I pass it to Irisviel, who gapes at me.
"Foreigner, that is-"
"It serves you more than me right now," I interrupt any complaints she may have, uncompromisingly "I don't know how to stop whatever is happening to you, but Avalon is the most powerful defensive Noble Phantasm I know out of the thousands I possess. It will not only make you pseudo-immortal, but it should protect you from any status ailments, even a divine curse if need be. The Angra Maniyu taint is a curse that contains billions of them within it, as it is literally 'all the evils of the world', so it won't be enough to subjugate Avalon if I'm here, but..."
"But?" she asks, hesitant to take the scabbard from my hands.
"Having a contract with me isn't a requirement to receive the benefits of Avalon if it's inside you, but it will drastically increase its functioning if you become my master" I explain, glancing at Kiritsugu who-
"Do it" he orders without wasting too much time in small talk, actually surprising everyone in the room a bit.
"Kiritsugu, are you sure? If-"
"Yes, no doubt" he replies, interrupting Maiya "I was ready to lose Iri because she would die to become the Grail. But now that she has the chance to live beyond the war, it's my priority to make sure there are no complications. I can even give her Foreigner for this, he wouldn't listen to me anyway"
"But your dream?" this time it's Irisivel who asks, unsure whether to be moved or worried by her husband's decision.
"I... have no intention of continuing down that path" Kiritsugu confesses dejectedly. "If the Grail is tainted like Foreigner said, we don't know what it could do once it's activated. It's too risky to use it without absolute certainty that it will work."
There was a moment of silence in the room after Kiritsugu's demoralized confession.
I, for one, had a hard time believing that he was listening to me, so I didn't know what to say.
I simply approached a very upset Irisviel and converted Avalon back into a conceptual weapon that I inserted into her.
"Once Kiritsugu passes you the command seals, I'll start supplying you with mana," I warn her "It will increase Avalon's performance, although since I can't be near you while I fight, the improvement won't be as strong as it is now and will decrease as I move away."
The woman gives a wry smile.
"You know that the master is the one who has to supply the servant, right?" the albino asks rhetorically.
"I have the energy capacity that would make a nuclear power plant look like a second-rate battery" I reply, puffing out my chest a little proudly "I can also convert other energy sources into mana to keep myself together completely autonomously, like taking the almost unlimited one from my armor. I will have no problem using my reserves"
Needless to say, putting a GN condenser in my chest was one of the best choices I could have ever made. Sure, I had not planned to be summoned as a servant in the past (or at all in truth), but between that and the Alaya-Vijnana, by converting the GN particles into mana directly in my body my maintenance does not weigh on the contractor, allowing me to fight without having to worry about draining him to death as any other servant could.
"...you are a living fraud" Iri accuses me, rather shocked by my simple explanation.
"I get that a lot lately" I reply cheekily with a rather ironic and tired smile.