9: Sometimes, video games are misleading.
As the light from the summoning dies down, Mordred's helmet clicks and shifts away like something from a transforming robot show - isn't that a bit anachronistic? He has blond hair and green eyes, and a somewhat effeminate face - but I won't be fooled! I'm friends with Ferris, so I'm able to see through at least this much!
"Yo! I'm Natsuki Subaru, and these guys are Mash and Hanam. Nice to have you aboard, Mordred-san!" I say with a wave.
"So someone like you is my master, huh? Well, your attitude is decent at least, so as long as you don't slow me down, we'll probably get along." He says before turning his attention to the other two. "And what's the deal with you two? You're definitely Servants, but I've never heard of either of you. Shieldy in particular is a bit…"
"Um, I'm actually a demi-servant - we don't know who the servant lending his power to me is, though…" Mash says.
"Oh! That explains it. Still, to think you'd get clothes like that… it seems more like something that Gawain would give you, not him…" Mordred mutters.
"Eh!? Does that mean you know who-!?" Mash exclaims.
"Sure, but I'm not gonna tell you. That's probably the type of thing you've gotta figure out on your own - I may not like the bastard, but he wouldn't kneecap you like that without a good reason." The Saber says with a shrug. "Anyway, skeleton guy. What's your deal?"
"...For a time while I was alive, I bore the title "Hassan-i-Sabbah. That is no lon-"
"Ehh? So a scrawny guy like you is the Old Man of the Mountain, huh? Well I guess that explains all the trash talk from Marco Polo, right?"
...There's a vein bulging in anger on Hanam's mask. I don't think that was there before, right?
"Anyways, that's everyone introduced!" I say, picking up the sheath from the summoning circle. "Doctor, how are the power reserves looking?"
"Not good, I'm afraid. Sir Mordred is likely going to be unable to use his Noble Phantasm without you powering it by command spell." He says.
"Tch. That's a pain. So what, I only get three uses of my sword for however long this shit takes to resolve?" Mordred replies.
"No, Chaldea's generators should be able to restore a command spell once every twenty-four hours." Romani says. "So don't be too stingy, Subaru-kun!"
"Right." I mutter. Well, I'm definitely not looking forward to running out of command and not being able to return to the point where I still had them. I know how this stuff works.
"By the way, master… that sheath…" Mordred says.
"Hm? Is it yours?" Fairies don't really seem his style, so that's a bit unexpected.
"No. It's my father's sheath. Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia. While he had the thing, not a drop of his blood could be shed in battle, so I stole the thing and buried it out in the middle of nowhere!" He says with a proud grin.
Wait, is that what Avalon is? I thought it was just some generic fantasy land, which is why it didn't mean much to me when the guys in the sheath introduced themselves to me.
Videogames and Anime lied to me!
"Well, if you summoned me instead of him, there's likely some serious compatibility issues going on between you two, so it's probably for the best!" Mordred says, resting his hands behind his head.
Hanam grunts. "That may not be the reason. The truth is… King Arthur was already summoned to Fuyuki. Saber may be of an unexpected gender, but that holy sword of hers was without a doubt the real deal."
"Heh." Mordred's mouth stretches into a feral grin. "Hah! Ha ha ha ha! Father! To think you'd be summoned here as well! This must be fate! Because, no one can defeat you! No one but me, father!" He throws his head back, letting out wicked laughter, with no sign of stopping-!
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅-!"
Suddenly, an impact rocks the area, and he's here. A hulking giant with no skin, its bare muscles glowing red and oozing blood. Here and there, scraps of torn skin are still present on its frame, and somehow all its exposed organs are remaining in place. Its crimson eyes scan the area, but don't focus on anything - he's blind, I realize after a moment.
He's right next to me.
"Woah, that's dangerous. Be careful, Master." Says Mordred, whose sword is already biting into the huge stone blade the giant is wielding. Somehow, he had blocked what I presume to be Berserker's blow, even with his guard lowered from his laughter.
The knight kicks me, and I'm sent flying backwards some thirty feet, only to be caught by Mash.
Mordred dodges a punch, freeing Berserker's blade, and then the fight begins in earnest.
Faster than the eye can see, their blades clash over and over again - and then, suddenly, a foot meets Mordred's chest, and the knight is embedded in a nearby building.
The giant heaves a breath, steam erupting from his jaws, and his head snaps towards the rest of us - only for a thrown blade to embed itself in his side. Mordred is upon him a second later, tearing free the sword in a shower of blood that Berserker doesn't even seem to notice.
"Shieldy, Skeleton guy, whenever you feel like helping out, that'd be great!"
"R-right!" Shouts Mash. "Mash Kyrielight, engaging the enemy!"
Before she can jump into the fight, Hanam grabs her shoulder. "Be careful. Berserker was arguably the strongest servant in the war prior to his blackening. Our foe is no less than Heracles, the strongest hero of Greece!"
For real!? Just how many stupidly rare historical artifacts did the people in this war have lying around, anyway?
"▂▂▃▃▅▅-" Heracles roars, as if relishing the compliments.
"Agh, for real!" Mordred yells in exasperation as he bats back blow after blow. "In that case, a command spell might be nee-!"
"▂▂▃▃▅▅■■■■-!"
And suddenly, the fight is over.
An attack slips past Mordred's guard, too fast for him to react, cleaving him neatly from left shoulder to right hip, armor and all - followed by another equally lethal blow, and another, and another, and by the time the command spell on my hand has flared in activation, he's already long gone.
Luckily, command spells don't care about pesky things like "total bodily obliteration".
"[Clarent… Blood Arthur!"] Mordred roars, and even as his blade falls from his grasp, red light erupts from it, tearing a hole in Berserker's body equal to about sixty percent of his body mass.
{Sorry, Master. Seems I'll be tagging out early.} Mordred's voice emanates in my mind - and then he's gone, in a shower of golden particles.
-!
Something explodes out of the rising mist of gold - an impossible mass of tendons and meat, still gripping a stone axe-sword. Mash deflects his first blow, but she staggers under the force - and then he flexes a muscle in his back, and his left goddamn lung smashes into her with supersonic force, sending her sprawling.
He raises his blade, and [Invisible Providence] is already in position, two hands spreading in front of me to catch the blade- and then Hanam kicks me to the left, placing himself in the path of the blade.
I scream out in horror. He can't die for me! No one should die for me, because I won't die!
Desperately, I stretch my invisible hands to their maximum possible range, to catch the blade, to make sure that this person won't die for me.
He doesn't die for me.
Heracles changes his aim.
The blade is suddenly swung to the left, towards me, neatly weaving below my first hand and then above the second.
Can he see them!? Or are his instincts just that good?
Regardless, the blade leaves his hand, and despite Hanam's attempt to protect me, it finds its mark. The thrown axe-sword, spinning like a ceiling fan flies towards me - and then, with a sharp pain in my neck, I can't breathe.
I can't breathe, I can't move my body, and the world is spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning. Tumbling over and over, ground and sky switching places again and again as a faint scream splits the air.
My head hits the ground, my crumpled body landing next to it. There's blood pooling out of the cleanly severed stump of my neck.
As my vision fades, I see the Berserker exhale another cloud of steam.
I feel a faint pull, and then...
A/N:
Still Monday in some places.
IT COUNTS.
Berserker is scary.
However, the solution to defeat him was foreshadowed in this chapter! (I don't just mean command spell, to be clear).
Can you figure it out?
Next chapter Friday.
REVIEW RESPONSE CORNER!
NoNameAvailable Bis said:
Well, Mo-san, good news! You'll get to beat up your dad soon enough! Ah, nostalgia. Also, getting a 5-star on your starting roll? Hax! I call hax!
It's in the title man. Barasu is a save-scumming, rerolling, cheating cheater who cheats.
Gotta be honest, I kind of expected One-Armed Hassan to die soon after getting rid of Shaytan, though I suppose Servants are made of hardier stuff. Well, I imagine he's at least cheap on the maintenance. And, well, sneak attacks are always good - when they work.
Servants are sturdy as fuck. Just wait til Lostbelt 5 man. There's some silly shit that happens there.
Crown of Reaper said:
Mordred, huh. Not a bad choice at all, but I feel a bit disapointed. I was hoping for angry Lancelot, but I guess the son can confront the Tyrant. At least it's a knight of the round table.
Mordred's compatibility with Subaru is actually pretty damn high. (Has to do with Subaru's backstory as expanded upon in the LNs, as well as his personality.)
Wolfclaw661 said:
Another great chapter. I'm curious so forgive if this is a stupid question but does this Subaru still have arms covered in the black marks of the dragon blood or is he from a point in the story where that's no longer a thing? I was wondering because if so that would be quite a distinctive thing he would likely attempt to hide with clothing but it would be interesting to see other characters reactions to it if they are still there. Unless of course you've already explained this question in some way already in the fic and I'm just extremely absentminded. Anyway thanks for the chapter.
This in particular has not been specifically addressed, but Subaru mentioned he showed up at the same place he left, at the same time, on the same day. In short, all physical changes have been reverted. Spiritually, he didn't get rolled back, though - so he has his authorities, and his gate is broken.
Guest said (about Reinhard):
But is he not above Siegfried in every way considering he is the counterpart Satella the one who swallowed half the world while he is the other half the world's illegitimate hero, and he basically is a protagonist with plot armors though I guess anti worlds could kill him(unless more plot armor)(ex infinite revival), and he could probably beat swig as a kid don't know if all that is highball and sorry for gamer. But he should be like a grand servant because of all that jazz.
So. There are various reasons for my statements about Reinhard. First: his legend does not exist on Earth. Hence, he cannot qualify to become a standard servant. He can qualify for Foreigner, by virtue of his nature as a literal alien, but he still loses quite a bit of power just because people on Earth don't know about him. So several of his protections would degrade; similar to how Achilles is no longer flat out "invincible" and can instead still be wounded by those with divinity, so too would Reinhard gain some vulnerability to servants with enough firepower.
Second - minor infodump about "Grand" incoming, because a lot of people seem to misunderstand it, and I looked up the details on it specifically when deciding how relevant it would be to this story (and then subsequently decided not to make any OC grands)
Grand servants are not just the most powerful in their class!
Grand servants are more powerful than normal servants purely because of their class container being grand. This has nothing to do with the actual powerlevel of the servant. If Astolfo got shoved in a Grand container for some reason, he would probably be able to body Gilgamesh. Grands surpass normal servants to the same degree that normal servants surpass humans. That's all.
Grand servants have selection criteria!
Non-humans cannot become Grand servants. There is one exception, and that's Quirinus, who was formerly Romulus, and thus is still a former human. Reinhard is not of the human order of Earth - he would not be seen as "Human" by Alaya. Disqualified.
Each class has its own criteria!
Grand Caster must have clairvoyance. The others are unknown, though - could easily be something like "Grand Saber must shoot beams". Unknown if Reinhard qualifies.
The seat of each Grand is already filled!
Only one individual can fill each seat, with a new one being selected as the chair is abdicated. Presumably, this means that all the grands are really old, although Hassan bucks this trend if he's actually the real Hassan i Sabbah from the Crusades era. This is, on the other hand, fodder for the theory that he is actually the biblical Cain. Also, Excalibur was used to beat Separ way back in several thousand BC; whether this was Grand Arthur or not is unknown. Regardless, the seat is filled and Reinhard is probably too recent.
Alright, I'm done ranting.
TL;DR, Grand is very very complicated, and I don't really feel comfortable slapping it on anyone.
iRogue III said:
In your A/N you mentioned how you don't really like info dumps or something roughly to that affect. I'm going to make a suggestion for things like that. Feel free to just make a general summary for the topic that fits in all of a sentence or two. For example let's take the part from this chapter where Subaru explains his situation. It's nice to elaborate on things, but sometimes it's alright to just write something likeI explained the barebones of my situation to them." and then the reaction from Romani.
Well that's if you want too. I just think it's an easier way of stating things the audience might already be familiar with, but that's me though. Not quite going into it but not quite glossing over it. Sorry if this doesn't make sense.
Yeah, that's what I prefer to do when possible, but in this case I felt like it was necessary stuff for purposes of setting things up that not all readers might be aware of. I'm trying to keep it accessible to people who have only read one or the other of Re:zero/FGO, though I don't know how well I'm actually doing there.
Guest said:
if Avalon isn't destroyed by that summoning, then it is probably possible to use to summon Artoria once the Alter version is dead, presumably Mordred was summoned because an Artoria has already been summoned and thus cannot be re-summoned when she is still alive.
Correct on all counts! However, it's bold of you to assume Barasu won't figure out a way to lose Avalon before Salter goes down ;P