Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 120 of the story!
Anyone watched TGA last thursday? Gotta say, wasn't expecting Astro Bot to win GOTY. I thought it would have either gone to Black Myth:Wukong or Metaphor. But congratulations to the dev team of the game. I'm sure it is a great fun game that had its merits. Also, we're just a few days away from LB7 by the time this chapter releases. So good luck to you all from here onwards!
With that said, let's start it!
DISCLAIMER: All of the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author
"We did it! The entrance section of the Holy City is ours! It has been taken!"
"And that golden tower from the castle has fallen! It must mean we're winning this, right?"
"Victory is closer than ever before, brothers! I can feel it!"
"Let's help the other troops that are still fighting in the different areas of the Holy City!"
"My oh my. Things are really getting a turn for the better now!" Da Vinci commented with amusement as she and Lancelot observed the troops winning over the Lion King's men at the entrance zone of the Holy City with the two servants help after a long and arduous battle, the sun having gone past midday at this point, the sky getting on afternoon colors. Step by step, they were conquering their enemy's kingdom.
"The battle here was hard fought but the sacrifice was eventually made it worth." Lancelot stored his sword, seeing that his forces were now in control of this area. "Thus, my job in this place is done. I shall now take care of other affairs!" The Knight of the Lake proceeded to face the staircase entrance in front of him that would lead the knight to the layer above of the one they were currently in. "Lady Da Vinci, I hereby request you to please surveil this area and be responsible of the men in here during my absence."
"Huh? Why? Where are you going?" Da Vinci questioned Lancelot as she saw him about to take the stairs. A very eductaed guess however, could tell to the genius italian inventor what was going through the Knight of the Lake's mind. "Wait! Don't tell me that you're thinking on what I'm thinking! Are you really going to do it?"
"I have to, Lady Da Vinci! In case that he really is the one pulling the strings, I then have to bring him to justice as a knight of the Round Table as well!" Lancelot explained to Da Vinci, having his mind fully decided.
"But it would be necessary to have more solid evidence to assume that he really is manipulating the Lion King!" Da Vinci argued, thinking Lancelot could be taking a shot in the dark with that.
"I have known him for a very long time, Lady Da Vinci. I am very aware of the type of conniving man that he is while using his own status as shield." Lancelot replied, not giving up on the theory he himself had came up with. "Despite looking dutiful and law-abiding when it comes to the knights code, I never could shake off of the feeling and similarities he seems to inherit from his own mother. That's why I must stop him, Lady Da Vinci! His envolvement and role in this could be bigger than we might could've originally thought!"
Thinking for a bit and calculating the hypothesis, Da Vinci just gave in and accepted the Knight of the Lake's theory. "Fine then. Mastermind or not, he's still a very high-rank enemy and second-in-command! So make sure to bring him to justice and deprive the enemy army of his leadership!" She gestured for Lancelot to proceed. "I will stay here and check on our troops to make sure we don't lose this territory in the meantime as requested from you! Now go, Lancelot!"
"Thank thee for the comprehension, Lady Da Vinci!" Bowing slightly from respect, Lancelot watsed no time and begun to going up the stairs, for he had a suspect in mind who could have contributed to one of the causes of their king becoming so different and ensuing this madness on the Singularity in the first place. Someone stern and controlling, with an authority of an iron fist. "I'm coming to end your nefarious schemes, Agravain!"
"In Sonorous Praise of Love!"
On the most upper layers of the Holy City, the confrontation between Tristan, the Knight of Lamentation, and the trio of Hassans, Cursed Arm, Serenity and Hundred Personas, was still occuring at the bridge, now sustaining many damages from the ongoing battle.
Despite the long duration of this fight, neither the knight nor the Hassans seemed exhausted, with Tristan's fingers still playing the cords of his Failnaught with barely any intervals, firing more sound arroes torward the three enemies. Even in obvious numerical disadvantage, the Knight of Lamentation was managing to fight them pretty equally, not making that huge of a difference to him and his abilities and reflexes.
"I confess, you mountain people were always persistent ants! Even with your anthills erased from existence, you always seem to refuse to die!" Tristan speaked, his nature not helping but try and instigate his enemies, dodging from the daggers and firing the arrows as counter. "But what exactly makes such feeble and small parasites like your kind to strive so much for survival against an adversary way out from your entire scope? How many more filthy villages have to be nuked and stomped until the realization of your impending loss passes through your thick craniums?"
"Until the last one!" Hundred Personas exclaimed, advancing in a sprint torwards Tristan, evading and blocking all of the arrows sent torwards her. "We prefer to die fighting than giving up!" She exclaimed, taking out four daggers from each hand at once and launching all of them torwards Tristan.
"Ah, then it's all just stubborn stupidity at the end." Tristan replied, avoiding all of the eight daggers, altough the last one scrapped a bit of his cheek and took out some of the knight's hair as he had tilted his head in order to avoid being hit. "Or maybe just stupidity." Tristan opened his eyes, having sensed Serenity behind him, ready to deliver a surprise attack that would put the Knight of Lamentation out of comission, quickly avoiding contact with her, hitting the Hassan away with Failnaught.
"Ngh!" Despite the minor hit, Serenity still managed to land on the ground with her feet, regaining equilibrium.
"Only stupid people die without taking the chances of survival into account!" Tristan proceeded to rain more arrows on them.
Even with the quantity of attacks targetted at them, Cursed Arm didn't hesitate to dash torwards Tristan, his fastly paced movements doing well against the falling arrows. With an agility of the wind, the skull-masked assassin arrived to the Knight of Lamentation, his weapon ready in hand and aiming to Tristan's chest, resulting in the knight putting Failnaught in front of him to block Cursed Arm's knife, ensuing a clash between the two.
"You may perceive it as stuborness! Even stupidity! But I won't expect for a scum like you to ever understand the true reason for why we fight so ardently!" Cursed Arm said with agressiveness, confronting the knight he despised so much ever since that attack to the east village. "We are aware of the risks! We know that the chance of us dying here is almost an inevitability! However, it isn't about our own lives that we are wanting to save here!" Cursed Arm pushed his weapon harder against Tristan's bow. "Whether we survive or die, it matters little to us three! Our true objective is another!" In a flash, the Hassan's mind reminded of Rushd, Arash, the people at the village, his fallen comrades and the times he abandoned his simple life to become one with the order. "It's the survival of our people! The ones that you couldn't, can't and will never be able to kill! For as long as we stand in your way, baleful knight, you won't kill a single more individual of my people!"
Right in that moment, both Serenity and Hundred Personas attempted to flank the Knight of Lamentation from both sides while Cursed Arm was keeping him occupied, pratically having Tristan in a checkmate.
"Tsk! Frivolous emotions." Against the odds, Tristan managed to escape from the trio surrounding him, pushing Cursed Arm away, blocking Serenity's hit with Failnaught since out of the three, she was obviously the most dangerous, and then, having taken the risk, put his own arm in front of his face, taking the blow from Hundred Personas before his feet slidded on the floor, backing away from the Hassans, standing on the other side of the bridge. "It is always weak hearts and fragile feelings that guides us to the painfulest of tragedies and defeats! Cold and ruthless assassins like you having that sort of compassion? Don't make me laugh!" Tristan exclaimed, pointing Failnaught at the trio, pushing all of bows strings back, preparing for a more powerful arrow. "If you care so much about your miserable people, then die with them!"
"Move!" Cursed Arm exclaimed to the other two Hassans as Tristan's arrow broke the bridge, its shattered pieces beggining to fall, with the trio of assassins seemingly falling alongside as the structure was crumbling. Seeing the arrogant smirk on Tristan's face as he was looking down on their fall, Cursed Arm wouldn't let things end like that. "Serenity! Hundred Personas! With me!" He shouted to his comrades who both nodded their heads, having already thinking the same as him.
Using the falling wreckage as a course, the trio of Hassans begun to hop and climb all their way up as if it was some sort of parkour, aiming to reach to the other end of the bridge where the Knight of Lamentation was standing. Seeing them trying to reach to him even while falling, Tristan could not say he wasn't impressed.
"Hmm, but I have to say that at least you have devotion." He pointed his bow down at them. "Too bad it cannot be put to something more useful!" And so, he open fire at them.
The Hassans however, were already counting on that, incredibly moving upwards while avoiding Tristan's attacks and jumping from obstacle to obstacle at the same time. Amazing levels of adrenaline that the Hassans had, pushing through the adversity with their reflexed and eventually, arriving at the top. As soon as her hand touched the remains of the bridge that were still intact, Serenity leaped over it and threw a dagger at Tristan who inclined his body, avoiding the dagger. Or so he thought.
From behind him, Hundred Personas had finished climbing up and without waiting threw her own dagger at Serenity's own, deflecting its trajectory and sending it right back Tristan.
"Hu-Ghg!?" Having noticed the incoming dagger but too late to dodge or block, the Knight of Lamentation ended up having his shoulder pierced by it, not having expected such level of refined teamwork between Serenity and Hundred Personas.
And Cursed Arm appeared right above him, taking chance that Tristan was distracted with the other two in order to conceal his presence and then land a surprise and possible fatal attack on the knight. "Die!"
"!" Looking up, Tristan acted quickly and played a note from Failnaught, firing an arrow upwards to Cursed Arm who had nothing to do but cancel his attack and move away in order to not get hit.
In almost simultaneously, Hundred Personas rushed from behind Tristan and tried to land her dagger on his throat, with the Knight of Lamentation parrying it once again with his bow. However, with a sudden spin of her body and footwork, Hundred Personas fastly moved to Tristan's front and kicked him right in the stomach, sending the knight all the way to the interior of the building that the end of the bridge lead to.
A built-in monastery, full of prismatic stained glass on the walls, with even the ceilling being made of glass. The afternoon sun was shinning down their colorful reflections well on the ground.
"How's that, you bastard?" Hundred Personas almost shouted with commotion to Tristan as the Knight of Lamentation was getting up, her voice echoing at the entrance of the monastery. "Not so full of yourself now with that cocky attitude?"
Serenity landed right next to her companion. "One cannot expect to defile and ridicule our order and get away with it. We make sure that our enemies always pay!"
Cursed Arm also stepped into the building, looking to Tristan, lining up with Serenity and Hundred Personas. "Therefore, we shall do of this place your grave, you conceited Knight of Lamentation!"
"Ghgn...Gah!" Grabbing the dagger stucked on his shoulder, Tristan removed it despite the pain, carelessly dropping it on the ground as he faced the trio of Hassans standing at the entrance. Panting a bit, with some blood having oozed from his lips, the knight would have much likely be furious for having been hit by such people he deemed as inferior. Yet, instead of expressing anger and revolt, the Knight of the Lamentation smirked and chuckled. "Heh. Hehehehe...Interesting." Looking at his opponents with a deadly, yet beautiful glare, Tristan was more than decided to kill them. "It would appear these insects do have stings."
"The precious tower of light from our king has fell..."
"No way...S-Sir Agravain! What does the Sir wants us to do?"
Not trying to enter in panic after having witnessed the collapse of the sacred golden lance, Rhongomyniad, the soldier knights were still worried and without proper reaction of what to do about it, seeking leadership on the 'always' composed and rigid Agravain. However, the knight in black armour did not responded immediatly, his brain still trying to take in the fact that he had just saw the Lion King's plans, his plans, to be twarthed when they were so near from the goal. The frustration and almost speechless feeling of having victory snatched away at the last moment.
"Sir Agravain! W-We need the Sir to instruct us! What should we do now?"
"...Leave and go help the others down there." Agravain replied in an almost a whispering voice, his face still staring to the same place, only sightly having moved his head. Yet, it wasn't enough for the soldiers behind him to hear it correctly.
"Hum? My pardons, but I did quite not listen it right, Sir! Can Sir Agravain please repe-"
"I said, for you to leave immediatly, go down to ht lower layers of the Holy City, and help the other units of our side win this damn war!" Agravain repeated, this time being more louder and hostile as well as specific, an expression of some anger in his face as he had finally turned his head around to order his soldiers.
And the sheer irritation on his face was enough to send shivers down the soldiers spines who immediatly obliged to their superior's commands, not wanting to piss him off further.
"U-Understood Sir Agravain! We will be on our way right this instant!"
Promptly leaving the balcony and the room in general, Agravain was left alone, back to have his concentration focused on the the view ahead of him. "..." What was once the glorious and immaculate Holy City, was now evolving into a degrading and ravaged battlefield of a brutal war with many ferocious fights happening and have happened across many points of the area, the traces of destoyed buildings being everywhere. Honestly, an utopian kingdom wouldn't look exactly 'utopic' with such desolated appearence.
Agravain could only stare in grievance as he wasn't sure if once his king ascended to the skies above, all of the damage the Holy City had suffered would be automatically undone. If not, then the knight could only have wished that he could stay a bit longer in order to repair and take care of the city one last time. For his king deserved something truly worthy of his greatness.
But despite the hard time and the hard blow of Rhongomyniad collapsing, Agravain kept his head cool and in place, knowing that didn't meant his king's defeat. There was still opportunity to win this war as long as the Lion King stood above the enemies. "My king, I am fully sure that His Majesty's utopia is still at thy reach." He speaked, looking up to the main tower of the castle above.
"Uff!..." Having runned and going up all the way to the uppermost layer of the Holy City for what felt like an eternity, the exhaustion on Ritsuka's legs were starting to be felt, with the master of humanity taking a short stop, putting a hand to a nearby stone fence while Mash, Bedivere and Arthur were all in front of him, about to climb a tall and wide staircase.
"Master! Are you alright?" Mash turned around, noticing Ritsuka having stopped and starting to get behind them, immediatly reaching him.
"Oi oi, Fujimaru! I know you're tired, but now it's not the time to take a rest!" Romani tried to push up for Ritsuka to continue through his hologram. "Even if the Lion King's sacred tower has been eliminated, we still have the time ticking until she pulls it once again!"
"Y-Yeah, I know, I know...Don't worry about me, Mash, Doctor." Ritsuka panted a bit, regaining a bit of his energy to continue, giving them a reassuring smile. "It isn't like I want to throw the efforts Ozymandias and Nitocris did for us in the trash now."
"All of this constant race to the top must have wore you down, Fujimaru." Bedivere walked torwards Ritsuka, crouching down to get on the level of his face. "I can help out carrying you if that's what you want."
"No need for it, Bedivere! I'm fine." Ritsuka rejected the Knight of Loyalty's aid. "I can still walk on my own, thank you."
"Then this will be one final good stretch, master of Chaldea." Arthur said while looking to the top of the tallest tower of the Lion King's castle, being more closer to them than ever before. "We are almost there. After this staircase, the gates to the castle's entrance msut be right ahead. Very soon, our confrontation with the Lion King will take place, so better be ready each one of you!"
Everyone else from the small party nodded in accordance to the words of the King of Knights.
"Yes. Gotta...end this while it's still time!" Ritsuka tried to stabilize his feeting, only to end up stumbling.
Mash grabbed him in prevention. "You are sweating a bit, master. While we for sure cannot relax now, let us at least help you climb up all these stairs." The shielder offered to her master, noticing that all of this rush of running and fighting almost non-stop was beggining to affect Ritsuka's muscles of some tiredness.
Ritsuka however, stubborn, tried to oppose. "But I already told you I'm-"
"Don't try the 'though guy act' now, Fujimaru. Do as she says." Romani took Mash's side, also advising Ritsuka to save some energy now to when they eventually arrrived to their fateful fight against the Lion King.
"Here. I'll help you climb the stairs until you feel better." Bedivere offered his hand to Ritsuka, insisting on wanting to help out the master of humanity.
"..." Taking the Knight of Loyalty's help in consideration first, Ritsuka stared to Mash, Romani and Arthur first. And all of them seemed to also want him to accept Bedivere's aid. Knowing that they couldn't be wastung time with this, Ritsuka promptly accepted, taking the knight's hand. "Okay."
As Bedivere was helping Ritsuka up, Arthur speaked to Mash. "Lady Mash, we shall take up the lead while walking up the stairs. Stay on alert!"
"Understood king Arthur!" Mash replied.
Arthur then stared to Ritsuka and Bedivere behind. "We will go ahead to give you cover. Still, make sure to not stay far behind us."
"Yes, king Arthur!" Bedivere responded, having one Ritsuka's arm above his shoulder while seeing Arthur and Mash taking the stairs in front of them. "Alright Fujiamru, take your steps with mine."
"Fu fou!" Fou went to Ritsuka's shoulder, lightly tapping his cheek as a way to give him motivation to continue.
"Got it." Ritsuka said, now supported by the Knight of Loyalty, taking the steps on the stairs one by one alongside Bedivere.
Despite the slow start, the duo was able to eventually time each other's pace as they would progressively get higher on the staircase while Mash and Arthur were up front, checking for any possible signs of an attack or enemies incoming.
Even if slightly exhausted, Ritsuka was beggining to recover some of his energy. Yet, seeing how many stairs that were still left to the top was a bit discouraging. "And to think...we aren't even halfway there."
"I know you can endure it, Fujimaru. After what I assume to have been tribulation after tribulation in your journey, climbing a long staircase must be on the lowest from the list of things and adversaries you have faced."
Ritsuka chuckled a bit. "Yeah. I'd certainly take a long walk on the stairs over everything else that has already happened before." He said, his steps and Bedivere's moving at the same rythm. "Still, I'm just regular human...So my body can't have the same attributes as that of a servant."
"Does that makes you feel some jealousy?" Bedivere gave him a gentle smile.
"Well, kinda, I guess." Ritsuka admitted. "If I was an Heroic Spirit, then my body wouldn't be so tired after all this trail of going up. There are situations that I wish I could do the same a servant can..." He gave a bit of a sorrowful smile. "I know it will sound pitiable but, sometimes it makes me think that being a regular human in the middle of warriors, gods and what-not, may be a bit of a pushover."
Even with the confession, Bedivere could not help but to disagree. "In my humble opinion, I think that is not Fujimaru's case. If anything, doing all of this effort, overcoming all these challenges and keep going despite the suffering while being of an ordinary nature and not special, is exactly what makes Fujimaru special in a way."
"When you put it like that..." Ritsuka remembered of Tesla's words to him back in the previous Singularity, how he had much more worth than Ritsuka credited himself to have. "I already had some people telling me the same before." He smiled more heartwarmingly. "However, is it possible for an average human like me to really go that far?"
"I think so." Bedivere responded, looking to the top of the stairs above. "For as long as a person has enough perseverance and determination, they can reach even to the furthest of lands."
"Then I better continue like that!" Ritsuka said a bit cheerful. "The mission to save humanity has been further than this before. If we defeat the Lion King, this Singularity is restored and all that is left will be one more to do. And after that, we'll see what happens." Ritsuka said, his mind thinking on the fateful clash he and Chaldea would have to do against Solomon once all the seven grails were reunited.
"Does Fujimaru gets anxious and nervous thinking about that day arriving?" Bedivere asked to the master of humanity.
"A bit. But I can't really let that distract me of the present now, can I? I know I have to be ready for when that moment comes." Ritsuka replied, giving a brief look to the entire Holy City below as they continued going up the staircase. "But right now, I am more worried about Peko and Nala. I hope they're doing alright..." His face got a bit apprehensive while speaking that.
"..." Mash, despite being many stairs above the other two, was still able to listen their conversation. Having a face of concern, she too was wondering about her two friends well-being on their own fights against Mordred and Gawain. Being that their oppoents were knights of the Round Table, it certainly wouldn't be easy for them.
"I want to believe that they are. While Gawain and Mordred are knights worth of their reputation and formidable foes, it doesn't mean that neither Peko nor Nala have reached this far alongside you by sheer luck, would it?" Bedivere reassured to Ritsuka that the two were doing fine. "Not that I deny that the fights they're having aren't being easy by any means. Quite the contrary, and I apologize for saying it, the probabilities of them dying against those two is high. Howbeit, it is in when our backs are pressed against the walls the most that we give our absolute best to survive. So, I think they'll be alive at the end of the day."
Taking those words of the Knight of Loyalty as some comfort, Ritsuka's mind tried being optimistic. "Yes. With so many things that both Peko and Nala have done so far, I am sure that they can pull it off. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here with us."
Bedivere simply smiled, satisfied with Ritsuka's answer. After a minute or two of still going up the stairs, Ritsuka felt his body more apt.
"Okay, I think I have enough energy already to keep walking on my own. Thanks for the help, Bedivere." The master of humanity stopped hanging onto the knight, thanking him for having adding Ritsuka to go up all these stairs."
"The gratitude is mine, Fujimaru. Now let's catch up with Lady Mash and king Arthur." Bedivere told to Ritsuka as both now went up the stairs at a faster pace, reaching to Mash and Arthur that where almost near at the top.
"I see that you're doing better now." Arthur told to Ritsuka, seeing him and Bedivere approaching.
"Let's continue, Master! Bedivere-san! The top is right a few more stairs ahead." Mash told them.
Climbing the remaining few set of stairs, the group of four had finally ended reaching to the top of the giant staircase, being at an height of the Holy City that they could now even see the mountains of the Singularity from afar. That, and an unpleasent surprise in waiting.
"Shit! I got bad news for you guys!" Romani said, not liking what his monitors were detecting.
"Why? What is it, doc?" A question that immediatly had its answer as Ritsuka and everyone else ended up stumbling into a big crowd of soldier knights ahead on a long and wide bridge that connected the end of the staircase to the entrance gates of the castle.
"It's them! The enemies have arrived here!"
"To your positions! Now! Now! Now!"
"We cannot let them enter the castle and disrupt our king!"
"Great. Of course there'd be more enemies for us to fight here." Ritsuka sighed, seeing that the staircase was just the warmup for what was coming next.
"The Lion King must have put them here as last defense in order to prevent us from reaching further!" Arthur stepped up, Excaliburn in hand. Therefore, they will go with everything in order to stop us from entering the castle! We have to clear the way first!"
"Understood!" Bedivere stood by Arthur's side, having his sword out as well. "We'll make sure to quickly dispatch them!"
Grabbing up her shield, Mash prepared to advance and fight enemies at the same time. "Shield offensive mode activated! Orders, master!"
"Push all the way through and knock as many enemies off the bridge as possible!" Ritsuka said, standing right behind Mash. "Ready to charge!"
"Library of Stored Information!"
Rushing torwards Tristan, Hundred Personas threw two daggers at the Knight of Lamentation, to whom he blocked altough the Hassan then went for a drop-kick aimed at his chest, forcing Tristan to tank it with both hands as his feet were dragged meters back alongside his entire body.
"Self Modification!"
From near the ceilling, Cursed Arm quickly stepped out from the shadows, throwing four daggers at specific columns of the monastery, revealling that those daggers actually had thin string attached to them, serving as suspension ropes as Cursed Arm used them to quickly run across the room and while parrying an arrow from Tristan in the middle of it, the Hassan jumped down on the knight, nearly gotting him, Tristan having dodged away.
"Shapeshift!"
But the danger wasn't over for Tristan yet, as Serenity, coming from the columns behind, suddenly appeared to fatally attack the knight, almost getting him if Tristan's sensed and reflexes weren't also on par, having barely dodged from the other Hassan's dagger and in retaliation fire more arrows from Failnaught, causing Serenity to run up the monastery walls as the colorful glass windows were being shattered by the knight's hits, the Hassan coming back to the ceilling by standing on the thin ropes alongside Cursed Arm and Hundred Personas.
"How unusual. He has been striked by my poisonous dagger and yet still continues fighting the same. The poison should have already kicked into his body!"Serenity commented, finding surreal that Tristan was still standing and seemingly unaffected by the blow of her poisonous attack. "Perhaps only a bigger quantity of poison can kill him!"
"He is one resistant asshole! That I unfortunately can't deny!" Hundred Personas said with spite. "Still, we can't kick the bucket with him alive yet!"
"Perhaps we should go for a different strategy!" Cursed Arm suggested, looking to the other two Hassans. "Serenity! Hundred Personas! Let's coordinate-"
But before he could finish saying it, all three of them sensed the powerful sounf arrow of Tristan's coming torwards the trio, making them all jumped away and into the columns as the attack blew the entire glass ceilling to shreds, opening the broken monastery to the afternoon's light of the outside.
"Planning on attacking a knight at the same time? Now I am sad. So incredibly sad that my enemies do not seem to muster an iota of intelligence." Tristan provoked him while paying attention to where they could attack from next, observant of the shadows and columns in the building. "You and your people do not seem to understand the tragedy that it will become if my king does not have his utopia. It appears you like to be utter irrational."
"Tragic? Don't make us laugh!" Hundred Personas voice echoed, still hiding in the shadows.
"What you deem as 'tragedy' for us is a 'comedy'! Nothing will please us more than seeing you and your king fail!" Cursed Arm added, also in the shadows.
"What really is a tragedy..." Stepping out, Serenity revealed herself, appearing from Tristan't left in an attempt to flank him. "Is what you've done to the innocents in our land!"
Spotting Serenity, Tristan aimed Failnaught at her, ready to shot. However, he got mildly surprised as instead of directly attacking him, Serenity instead slided on the ground, quickly tying a string around Tristan's legs as she then moved on. "Cursed Arm! Hundred Personas!"
Following right up, the other two Hassans also exited from their hidden spots, each one fastly throwing the daggers with strings near Tristan's wrists, envolving around them, much to the Knight of Lamentation slight bother. And it didn't end there as the trio of Hassans worked in an astounishing coordination with each other, being as agile and swift as possible while moving from one place to another of the monastery, never stopping tying up Tristan more and more with the strings from the daggers they were throwing at the knight, reaching to a point were they had fully immobilized his limbs.
"Ah. It seems I've been put in an inconvenient situation." Tristan speaked with rather calmness and composure despite being tied and with his body hung in the middle of the room like an insect that fell into a spiderweb. It was the perfect opportunity for the Hassan trio to strike.
"Now! Let's end this!" Cursed Arm exclaimed as all three of them descended from the strings on the ceilling and sprinted torwards Tristan from different directions.
"Human souls are insubstantial things!"
"We are all as one, and one as all!"
"Hotter and Hotter. Enough to melt!"
As all three of them were about to unleash their own Noble Phantasms, looking to strike them at Tristan all at once, the Knight of Lamentation couldn't help but to let a small smirk scape from his lips. "Foolish."
Even if with his arms restrained, the strings of Failnaught were but a inch away from Tristan's tip of his finger, to which he simply touched and played a single note from it, prompting entire arrows from above to strike down the monastery's ground, breaking the floor underneath the Hassans and freeing himself from the strings they had attached him with.
"What?!" Serenity exclaimed in pure shock as she saw the ground below her feet collapse, not paying attention to an incoming arrow above her.
"WATCH OUT!" Hundred Personas yelled, shoving Serenity out of the way, taking the blow in her place, the arrow piercing right through her chest.
"Hundred Personas!" Serenity exclaimed in startlement, seeing her comrade fatally wounded.
"Keep going!" Hundred Personas yelled as blood poured out from her mouth, not wanting to waste this chance despite the unforseen event. Right there, many skulled masks begun to appear behind her.
"A shadow with a hundred versions!"
Sharing the same feeling as her, both Cursed Arm and Serenity decided to continue and proceed to unleash their Noble Phantasms as well.
"Writhe in agony!"
Taking out all of the bandages that covered his right arm, Cursed Arm revealed the demonic monstrosuty that was his limb: the extremely long and slender grey-black arm of the fiend of Shaytan, beggining to glow an hellish orange light. "May the angels of hell chastise you, knight of the Round Table!"
"Your body and hear will be incinerated!"
Stepping like thunder, Serenity's sking begun to release a purple gaseous substance, the poison in hr body overloading as she planned on killing Tristan with a single touch. "We won't waste this chance!"
"Tsk!" Despite being free from the strings, Tristan wasn't satisfied as his arrows hadn't successfuly stopped the trio of assassins, who all in unison surrounded him and chanted the name of their Noble Phantasms.
"Delusional Illusion: ZABANIYA!"
"Delusional Hearbeat: ZABANIYA!"
"Delusional Poison Body: ZABANIYA!"
Unleashing all three of their own Noble Phantasms at the same time, it was basically over for Tristan. Even if his arrows managed to keep the hundred more assassins charging torwards him at bay, even if he narrowly scaped from Cursed Arm's demonic arm by a few centimeters, Serenity, in all her adrenaline, reached the Knight of Lamentation in the blink of an eye and with barely her fingertips, she mannaged to rub them softly right on Tristan's face before slidding away and all one hundred of Hundred Personas assassins dissapearing into dust.
"Ghhng...URGHG!" Feeling Serenity's poison in his body, the effect made Tristan cough some blood and fell to his knees. They had done it. The trio of assassins had defeated the Knight of Lamentation.
"Hehehe...how do you like that,eh?" Hundred Personas laughed faintly as her body gave up and she fell on her knees as well, the wound she received from Tristan's arrow being enough to be fatal. "Never...dare to torment our people...again."
"Hundred Personas!" Grabbing her ally, Serenity put her hands on Hundred Personas back and head, staring to the last moments of her fellow assassin.
"Heh...So this is how your touch feels like..." Hundred Personas smiled kindly to Serenity as her body faded away. "Its...comforting..." And without saying much more, Hundred Personas dissapeared into the thin air, having end up dying with the joy that she at least avenged the mountain people and the other fallen Hassans.
Breathing deeply, Serenity stared sadly to the now empty space. "Rest well, my friend."
Paying some seconds of silence for his fallen comrade, Cursed Arm then changed his gaze torwards Tristan. "Not feeling well, knight? Powerless? In agony? This is exactly what many of the people you killed and made suffer felt. Every single one of them. But the same way you did not show them mercy, I will not show any to you." Cursed Arm told coldly, his right arm contorting frighteningly, as if it was hunting for something. Cursed Arm was doing his best to keept it under control, taking out a dagger. "Knight of the Round Table, Sir Tristan, fell by lethal poison. Yes, that is indeed a worthy fate of despicable fiends like you!" Cursed arm exclaimed, about to bring down the dagger on Tristan.
But, this wasn't the end for the knight. "!"
Lifting up his head, the Knight of Lamentation quickly drew out his sword and parried away Cursed Arm's dagger, surprising the assassin. "Wha..."
"The fact that you thought this was won already and your friend died for nothing even with all the effort. Truly, how sad." Tristan 'lamented' as he slashed his sword right across Cursed Arm's chest, making the Hassan fall to the ground some meters away.
"The direct contact with the poison in my skin didn't killed him?!" Serenity exclaimed in huge shock, terrified. "How-ghgh!?" Totally dazed, the Hassan did not see the rapid flash coming, striking her on the left hip, bringing Serenity to the ground for an instant.
"Ah, beautiful flower, your touch might be deadly, but my body was immune to it ever since the start." Tristan told her, his body fully up and functioning perfectly.
"What?" Serenity replied in bewilderment.
"B-But how?..." Cursed Arm questioned painfully.
"For start, you were planning to kill me with poison because perhaps you were aware of my legend. Specifically, the way I died in my previous life." Tristan begun to explain. "That it came to a tragic end by the poisoning of my entire body, leaving me to die. Thus, poison should be nothing but an extremely effective resource against my very own being. That is why when I pledged loyalty to the Lion King, he attributed me with my own Gift: Reversal. Technically, the poison that could be lethal to me, has been turned to non-effective if used." And so, the Knight of Lamentation, who's weakness had been stripped away from him by the Lion King, smiled and opened his eyes with the face of a man that had also been stripped from feelings in general, losing any sympathy he could have ever felt before. "Meaning that any types of poison are useless against me!"
"Dammit! Dammit!" Cursed Arm shouted to himself as he heard Tristan's explanation. "All of this effort, for him to be immune in the end?!"
"It can't be...It can't!" Serenity said in almost denial. Hundred Personas couldn't have died for nothing.
"Oh, but it is." Tristan smiled, enjoying the despair and shock in her face. "That is why you were always doomed to lose since the start. Your entire campaign to destroy the Holy City and my king's plans were never meant to succeed!" Taking out Failnaught, Tristan decided to go with everything at the two remaining Hassans. "Now listen to the farewell notes of Failnaught!"
"The sound of pain...
...the tune of sorrow."
"His Noble Phantasm!" Cursed Arm exclaimed, seeing that the situation for them had gone from great to bad in just a minute. "Serenity dodge!"
"Know that my sadness will rend your flesh..."
Playing all strings of Failnaught at once, Tristan fired numerous arrows in the duo's direction, having dodged all of that by a miracle as the walls and ground of the lower floor of the monastery were split open.
Having all the arrows crossing at one specific point, Tristan then prepared aimed his weapon to the center, charging a more powerful arrow, glowing blue.
"Phantasmal Music of the Painful Lament: Failnaught!"
Firing a potent arrow, Tristan blew up the entire ground, making him as well as Serenity and Cursed Arm fall off from the monastery, descending freely torwards another building that was just beneath them.
"..." During the fall, Cursed Arm looked to the dmeonic arm of Shaytan, seemingly going wilder and wilder, hungering for something. In that moment, the Hassan knew what to do.
Crashing onto the floor of the building beneath them, Tristan landed on his feet as all the dust around tried was dying down. Already hearing footsteps nearing, the Knight of Lamentation grabbed his sword and immediatly clashed with Serenity who had stepped out from the curtain of dust, two daggers in both her hands.
"Danse Macabre!"
Going back to her mode of pure adrenaline, Serenity clashed her daggers with Trsitan's sword and moved her body acrobatically almost nonstop, trying her very best to fatally wound Tristan with them. If poison couldn't kill him, she would do it in another way. "Whether your immune to poison or not, it doesn't mean you're immortal! We won't let you defeat us! All of the crimes you commited shall be answered and made justice!" She exclaimed, the close combat between the two getting so intense that Tristan managed to slightly slash Serenity in her left eye, taking out half of her vision.
"I do not answer to low-lives who cowardly kill their opponents from behind!" Tristan replied, his sword clashing again with Serenity's dagger, managing to shake it off from her hand...Only for Serenity to catch it with her mouth, now using it to attack Tristan.
Both reflexes were incredibly on par with one another, Serenity being mostly the one attacking while Tristan was on the defensive. The Hassan tried and tried times again to break through the knight's defenses, to find a breach, an opening from where she could strike him down. And as she went to attack him with such hurry and need to kill him, Serenity ended up letting herself exposed, bringing Tristan to fully pierced his sword on her stomach.
"Kughhgr!" Dropping the dagger from her mouth, Serenity feel the blood coming out of it as rhe stained windows behind her were painted with her blood.
"Attacking a single knight alone with such precipitation. A fatuous action." Tristan said, removing his sword from Serenity, having landed the killing blow on her. "Now may you succumb, knowing that all of your kin fought for nothing, beautiful flower." He said with a repugnant tone altough calm.
Knowing that this was the end of the line for her, Serenity however would not go away without smilling to Tristan first. "Oh, really?...You yourself said...that we are cowards who only kill our opponets from behind...heedless knight..." And with that response, Serenity's body completly faded away, but always smilling, as she knew Tristan had fell for it.
Rather oblivious at the beggining, not grasping at what Serenity was trying to say with it, Tristan soon came to realize there was still one more Hassan missing.
"Zabaniya!"
Seeing the demonic bright glow that came from behind, the Knight of Lamentation fastly turned around and blocked Cursed Arm's Noble Phantasm, the blade well cut into the skin and flesh of Shantya's demonic limb.
"Trying another sneak attack on me? A shame, honestly. If your companion hadn't carelessly warned me beforehand, you might had killed me there." Tristan mocked Cursed Arm's attempt. "Your biggest opportunity of killing me has been blown away!"
"...No." Cursed Arm responded with a deep voice. "This is exactly what I wanted you to do."
"Hm?" Raising an eyebrow, Tristan looked to his sword as he heard some inhuman noise, ending up being surprised as he saw the flash of the demonic arm beggining to grow and consume his weapon. "What? What'sn this?!" He demanded to Curse Arm.
"My Noble Phantasm. My 'Zabaniya'." Cursed Arm responded, seeing some discomfort on Tristan's face. "Never having any kind of speciality to enter the order of assassins, being young and foolish, I commited the unspeakable act of sacrificing my own right arm and swap it with the one from the horrific demon, Shantya, gaining a way to become an Hassan. The why for the title 'Cursed Arm'. Once it's liberated, it will consume and devour anything and anyone on its way."
"Ghg! You-...Make it stop!" Tristan exclaimed, slowly losing his composure as he tried to remove his stuck sword from the growing devilish arm, being unable to.
"I fear that can't be the case, as I myself am unable to control Shantya's arm properly." Cursed Arm's revealed, much to Tristan's horror. "It is a totally entity of its own, always looking for the next soul to eat."
"D-Damn it!" Seeing that he couldn't remove the sword, Tristan tried to take his hands away, but it was already too late for him as the arm's expanding flesh reached to his hands, glueing them to the arm as well. In an unexpectable turn of events, Tristan was now the one losing, his fate much likely sealed. "You don't even have any sort of Gift of your own! How you dare having made a stand against our kingdom in the first place!?"
"Sir Tristan, while I do not have a 'Gift', we both are men with peculiar skills respectively." Cursed Arm speaked calmly, in contrast to Tristan's more panicked voice. "Honestly, with all sincerity, you are a knight of quite great fighting quality. I see why you were part of the Round Table. Maybe in another lifetime, I could have perceived your faculties for archery and music with more respect. Because ever since I got to know you in this conflict. Every single deed and sin you committed while showing your victims nothing more but contempt and superior arrogance..." With his voice growing more stronger, louder and hostile, Cursed Arm promised to himself Tristan would pay the moment his village was ravaged by him and his men. And that moment had come. "I think hell will be a suitable place for you!"
Liberating all of his mana into Shantya's arm, Cursed Arm made the limb's flesh grow and expand more monstrously, the glow becoming more intense as it consumed the Knight of Lamentation's arms.
"Are you really okay with this?! To sacrifice what could be a perfect utopia and peace for the last shreds of humanity over continuing to live in such lands of only sand and rocks!?" Tristan exclaimed, seeing that there was no way to escape from Cursed Arm's Zabaniya. "You shouldn't care for any of that! There should be no reason for you to fight!"
"But there is!" Cursed Arm exclaimed back, the glow of Shanya's arm glowing over the walls. "We simply don't care about some utopia! We don't care about other countries! We do not follow orders of invaders like you! All that we do, is to serve and protect our own from the shadows as it was our calling!" The lifeforce of Cursed Arm was being sucked away by the demonic arm, blood flowing out from the Hassan's body. "That is our original law from our order!"
"Ghg!" Having the lump of flesh almost near his face, Tristan tried to back it off while eyeing Cursed Arm, almost with the vision of his figure covered.
"The calling of the Old Man of the Mountain!" Shouting, Cursed Arm ended up severing and ripping away Shantya's arm from the rest of his body, creating an explosion that collpased the entire room they where in.
With the ground once again collpasing, Cursed Arm, out of energy, fell into the lower layers of the Holy City below, no longer with the posession of the arm that gave him his name, having passed the curse to Tristan.
"Serenity...Hundred Personas...Arash...Rushd...It's over..."
.
.
.
"What a formidable enemy...Such...scary tenacity..."
Limply and weakly walking through the halls of the destoryed building, Tristan, now with the entrie lump of flesh that was the Shantya's arm, having consumed his entire torso, talked to himself.
"Despite being a mere assassin...Or maybe...he never was one..."
Trying his best to keep walking, Tristan ended up reaching to a dead end, being face to face with a giant stained glass of a rose. The flower of love.
"That 'faith' of his...Was that what kept him going..? Well, despite not being of my concern...it is certainly a faith to envy.."
Falling to his knees, the wounded and moribund Knight of Lamentation looked at his own reflection on the glass, seeing the horrific thing. Such sight that could only make him have one thought in specific.
"What...an ugly monster..."
Truly, now, at the end of his second life, and having an introspective and literal look at himself, Tristan could only think on how much attrocities and disgust he had done in this second life. What would his beloved Iseult would have said if she had seen this side of him?
"That the Knight of Lamentation, of love, poetry, sympathy and minstrel was gone...replaced by a villanous knight that could not feel a thing. For he said that the king couldn't comprehend nor sense the feeling of men...And now, neither could he..."
"Since coming to this land...I have encountered nothing...but misery and lamentation...sadness."
As his own eyes were even losing their vision as Shantya's arm was now even consuming his internal organs away, Tristan closed them and lifted up his face.
"And yet..."
Smilling with a kind smile that once used to be more common on the Knight of Lamentation's face, Tristan felt the sun's rays shinning through the stained glass.
"...I saw something beautiful at the end of it..."
At the top of her tower, the Lion King stared emotionlessly to the overall view of the land around her kingdom as the sun was beggining to set down in the horizon. The temporary lose of the sacred Rhongomyniad was an hard blow to her objectives in reaching utopia, much thanks to the last efforts of the Sun King, Ozymandias., in stopping her. But despite of the frustration, she kept her head cool and collected, for she knew this didn't meant the end of her goal.
"Having such level of devotion in taking the chaldeans side, Sun King. What exactly did you saw in them in order to make such choice?" Wondering that briefly, 'Artoria Pendragon' slightly lowered her hand, thoughtful. "You think their way of saving humanity is a viable one?" In some seconds of silence, the Lion King reached to her own conclusion. "No. It just would be delaying the end and prolonging the suffering. True salvation for humanity, is at my hands."
Having the spear Rhongomyniad in her hands, the Lion King stared at it and its splendor, having deep connection with the sacred weapon. "Thanks to the power of Young Finsternis soul still stored within, rebuilding the connection to the skies above shall not be a long time to achieve. What was once destoryed can be assembled once more. The road to the heavens above hasn't yet been lost."
Looking up, the Lion King stared to the clear skies, awaiting for her kingdom. "Soon, none shall suffer again."
Unfortunately for her, that sentiment lasted shortly as she then noticed a bad omen: the skies went completly pitch dark, as if they were painted and stenched in black. The entire skies of the Singularity did, taking away the last lights of the day.
Having seen this before, the heart of the Lion king shrudder as she knew what it meant. "It can't be..."
"Hey! What's this? Why the hell the sky's turned dark all of a sudden?" Touta questioned in confusion as he and everyone else that where fighting at the main gates of the Holy City noticed the sun's light dissapearing, replaced by a totally black sky.
"It can only be the work of a djinn no doubt!" Saruhan exclaimed, near the servant. "What kind of black sorcery could it be if not that?"
"Everyone run!"
"Run! Run! To the rooftops!"
"Quick! Before the Blight gets you!"
"Huh? What's even happening?" Being at the top of a building in the entrance zone of the Holy City, Da Vinci looked down at the troops and units running frenetically for their lives and screaming as a dark substance was corroding the entire streets of the area, catching some of them.
"No! No! Please! No! Stop this! Somebody hel-"
"What a..." Watching in terror, Da Vinci saw some of the men that were caught by the Blight be corrupted and transformed into demonic identities, atttacking their own allies alongside other demonic monsters that surged from the liquid. Some which Da Vinci recognized, immediatly understanding the dire situation that was happening. "I need to contact Romani and the others quick!"
"Yah!" Bashing her shield onto a soldier knight's body, Mash pushed the enemy off the bridge as she, Arthur and Bedivere ended up clearing the entire bridge that led to the entrance of the castle from every single enemy that was previously occupying it in order to stop the group.
"That was the last one! Great work you three!" Ritsuka told them, now not being a single more enemy to stop them on their way to the Lion King. Or so he hoped.
"Thank you, master." Mash replied.
"The coast has been cleared." Arthur said, standing near the castle's entrance alongside everyone else. "Time to get inside the castle and-huh?" However, he was cut short as soon as he noticed something wrong happening in the skies.
Bedivere also looked up, having the same reaction. "The sky...What's happening?"
"It turned all dark?" Ritsuka asked in a dumbfounded shock, not understanding the why for it.
Neither did Mash or any of them. "But how is this possible? This can't be a machination of the Lion King now!"
"Because it most certainly isn't." Arthur said with a serious voice, already telling that the all black sky couldn't be a good sign.
"And you're right on that!" Romani replied on his hologram. "While I cannot obtain any readings of the sky at the moment, I'd say such nature seems familiar to- Uh? Hold on! Da Vinci is contacting us!" Typping some keys, Romani picked Da Vinci's call and put her hologram in display for the group to see. "I presume you're seeing this sky too, Leonardo."
"I am and it ain't just that!" Da Vinci said.
"What is it Da Vinci-san? Is there something more happening in the area you're in?" Mash asked to the italian inventor.
"Indeed! The Blight has invaded the Holy City! At least the lower layer on the zone I'm in!" She gave them the bad news. "But most importantly, its bringing lots of demonic enemies with it! The same kind of shadow demons you've fought before!"
"They're also here now?!" Ritsuka said in shock. "But then, could this possibly mean that..."
"I also have the same deduction as you, master!" Mash told him. "He must be in here if so! We must be extra careful now!"
"One of the three Beasts rumoured to be present in this Singularity?" Bedivere pondered.
"Much likely." Ritsuka replied.
"We-" As soon as Arthur would start speaking, a voice sounded on his head.
"Arthur, I found it! The Beast is nearby!"
Hearing the voice of the mage of flowers ushering him to go to that encounter, the King of Knights took some few seconds on a choice.
"Is king Arthur alright?" Mash asked him.
"Yes. You three go and deal with the Lion King! I'll deal with the source of this!" Arthur told them, about to head to another direction that wasn't the castle's gates.
"But we need you!" Ritsuka exclaimed.
"With king Arthur at our side, we have a bigger chance of winning against the Lion King!" Bedivere said, trying to convince the King of Knight to keep going with them.
However, Arthur had already decided. "My presence doesn't determine if you either win or lose against the Lion King! It is your own set of skills as knight, Sir Bedivere!"
"..." A bit apprehensive, Bedivere wasn't fully sure if not having Arthur by their side wouldn't difficult the things for them.
"Hey. You said you were going to save your king, didn't you?" Arthur told to Bedivere, grabbing his attention. "Then go save your king! The one who you always spent time with travelling, fighting, serving! Make Artoria Pendragon's mind have a glimpse of those days once more!" He then put a reassuring hand on Bedivere's shoulder, smilling to him. "Let this king who was never yours go, and rescue the one who you pledged your loyalty to. For I know that there is a reason for why she picked you."
Getting that advice into his head, Bedivere knew Arthur was right. Despite being the same legendary king and a kind one, king Arthur was not his king, but the one trapped in a stoic shell up there in the tallest tower. The one he wanted to apologize to and reunite with. "Got it! Good luck on your own mission, king Arthur." Bedivere smiled back to Arthur.
Arthur nodded at him before giving a last look at Ritsuka and Mash. "The same goes for you! For humanity, you must not falter here! Spirits up high, people of Chaldea!"
"We will! Thank you for the help so far, king Arthur!" Ritsuka replied to him.
"Careful with the enemy, king Arthur!" Mash told to the King of Knights. "I hope that the king can make out of it alive!"
"With Excalibur, I shall not fear the toughest of battles!" Arthur told to the shielder. "Now go forth and stop the Lion King before it's too late!" Having sent a 'farewell' to the other three, Arthur Pendragon begun running to the other direction as the trio entered the castle. As of now, only one objective occupied his mind. "I can no longer let this Beast escape!"
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 120!
And the one kicking the boot this time was Tristan! And the Hassans as well. Eye for an eye stuff. But yeah, this was finally the end of evil-scumbag Tristan. R.I.P bozo, you won't be missed (No disrespect to the actual cool Tristan).
And yeah, this chapter was shorter than the others (Funny how I'm calling a 10k chapter short because of all the other ones that came out recently). Majorily focused on the Hassans trio fight against Tristan. And things are also starting to get a bit more intense again with that ending. Like, off course that I couldn't have just showed a random conversation between Man of Sin and Solomon right before the beggining of the war and then do nothing with it. It was time for them to also move.
And now, out of all the knights of the Round Table that have been defeated, who's still remaining? None other but professional prime-minister and women hater with a face that always needs coffee during work shift or else he dies from absolute exhaustion and co-workers incompetence, Agravain! Next in line!
Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 121! Peace!
P.S:
Ritsuka: Who's all ready to go into LB7 everyone?
Kadoc: Don't treat this like it will be some sort of road trip, Fujimaru! Daybit is a dangerous and mysetrious opponent! But yes, I'm ready with even this new mystic code I got.
Ritsuka: Your new mystic WHAT!?
Kadoc: Humm, my new mystic code. Y'know, for this lostbelt in specific.
Ritsuka: Woah woah woah woah, hold up a sec! You get a new mystic code that is LB7 exclusive while I get nothing? Really?! That ain't fair!
Kadoc: Yeah, Fujimaru. Because across all these years, you didn't have like...a hundred of mystic codes from events and whatnot. But just because I have a new one from THREE, and you don't, you're the poor sad one, right?
Ritsuka:...I'm the protagonist, dude.
Kadoc: Oh, so that makes you think you can use that to win every single argument?
Ritsuka: In every conceivable way.