14: The Greater Grail
We end up reuniting with Hanam at roughly the halfway point - the large bridge from the urban area of town to the more suburban zone.
"Yo, Assassin." says Cu. "Find anything good?"
"...Nothing unexpected." The skull-masked man replies. "Lancer is nowhere to be found - I combed the area around Ryuudou temple thoroughly, and didn't detect anyone other than Archer and Saber."
"Well, I'm fine with just ignoring her if she's not going to stop us." I say. I mean, she should be erased along with the singularity, right? "Did you find all your knives?"
"...I was able to find and salvage around half of them. I now have thirty-nine dirks to my name."
"Well, that's better than nothing! Shame you missed our calisthenics, though. I hope you don't cramp up later." I joke. It's the solemn duty of Natsuki Subaru to make sure his friends get their daily exercise, after all.
"Servants don't get cramps, so I doubt that will be a problem." Interjects the Director. "Rather, I'm surprised that Mordred and Cu Chulainn wasted their time joining in on that pointless exercise."
"Eh? Just because it won't give any physical benefit doesn't mean it's pointless." Says Mordred. "It's about the feeling of the thing, you know? Gets you in the right state of mind. Same reason I don't like going around astralized - it feels weird not having my feet on the ground."
Cu nods. "It's like that, basically. We may have been dead for a while, but we still remember being alive like it was yesterday. Pointless things like eating, sleeping, and exercise are still good for morale if nothing else."
Mordred nods sagely. "The Hound gets it. Humans should act human. Man, I wish we had more people like him in Camelot - most of the other knights were a buncha stuffy idiots who kept trying to turn themselves into robots or something."
"Ain't that just like the English, though? Shoulda been born a Celt, lass! Least we know how to have a good time!" The Druid shoots back with a grin.
"Oi, who are you calling 'lass'!? You wanna fight?" Mordred says, scowling. "Also, I'm Welsh, not English."
"Hey, leave your backwards gender stereotypes at the door! I might get offended on my teacher's behalf." Cu says, grin widening. "And hell yes I want to fight!"
Mordred's face shifts into a similarly vicious grin, and she opens her mouth to respond, but I cut her off. "Save it for after we deal with Saber, you two."
"Yeah, yeah. Wouldn't want to run out of gas when fighting Archer anyway." says Cu with a sigh.
"Right, it'd be a shame if I lost to Father after I got injured kicking your ass." says Mordred.
"Hah, dream on!"
"Stop." Caster calls out as we near the mountain on which Ryuudou Temple stands. "We're reaching the outer edge of Archer's range. I've boosted the range of my Protection From Arrows, so that should take care of his more simple projectiles, but the bigger ones are all you, Shielder."
"R-right! I'll do my best!" Mash answers nervously.
"Let's go, then. Assassin, you handle Subaru." He says - and then, in an explosion of sonic force, he begins sprinting towards the peak of the mountain. Hanam grabs me, and the three servants I've contracted directly take off at a similar pace.
A few seconds later, the arrows start flying. Like concentrated machine gun fire, glowing red bolts rain down upon us, exploding on impact. But any that might have hit their mark are deflected by a faint barrier projected from Cu's body, and a moment later, the arrows stop.
"He's gonna start using Noble Phantasms! Get ready!"
A moment later, a sword is launched down the slopes at us. No, at me. As Hanam moves out of its path the sword-turned-arrow curves in midair, correcting its trajectory towards him, and by extension, me.
"Haaah!" Mash cries, and her shield smashes it out of the air, the blade detonating as she strikes it.
More copies of the same sword follow in its wake, but each is slapped out of the air by Mordred, Caster, and Mash working in tandem. Eventually, those attacks stop as well, and I can feel an oppressive wave of mana as we near the top of the Temple stairs.
"That'll be [Caladbolg]!" Yells Caster, slowing his pace. "Mash Kyrielight, this one's all yours!"
Mash takes the lead, and pauses, taking a deep breath. "I can do this. I can do this."
She raises her shield, a blue magic circle forming at its center. "Beginning Pseudo-deployment of Noble Phantasm! [Lord…!"
In an eruption of light, the blade is launched down the slope at us, annihilating the stone stairs in its wake.
"...Chaldeas]!" Mash yells, and a flawless wall of marble is raised in the arrow's path.
Unstoppable force meets immovable object. Light streams forth from [Caladbolg] as it impacts the [Lord Chaldeas], spiraling waves of light in all the colors of the rainbow. The ground ahead of us is torn to pieces, stone and dirt filling the air.
And then, finally, in one final explosion of blue light, sword surrenders to shield.
"Haah… Haaah… I did it… I did it!" Mash says, smiling. Caster sprints ahead again, and disappears through the temple gate.
"Heh. Like some lame-ass knockoff Excalibur could breach that wall. As long as your will holds strong… there's no way that shield would ever fail." Mordred says with a scoff.
And then so quietly that I can barely hear her, I hear her mumble to herself. "...Damn bastard. If he had been there, then Father…"
"So you couldn't take me on your own, so you decided to get help, huh?" Says a tanned man with white hair. He's wearing black body armor, and has faintly glowing red lines running along his skin. "Well, I suppose it's to be expected of you. Dogs hunt in packs after all."
"Nah, they're just here to make sure you don't go crying to Saber for help when I'm about to win." Says Cu. The two are slowly circling each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move - except, that works in our favor. I can barely make them out, but Caster has been leaving runes on the ground as he moves.
"Hmph. Mordred to fight off Arthur, huh?" Archer says, eyes flicking towards the knight. "Well, frankly I'd advise you to turn back. You won't find anything other than misery if you face her as weak as you are now."
"Hah! You think I'm scared of father!? Please, I'm twice the swordsman he is. There's no way I'll lose."
"I wasn't talking about your physical capacity. Well, it's not like you'll listen to me anyway." The man says with a small shrug and a smirk. "In any case, thanks for the new toys. Trace, on!"
And then, a familiar red blade appears in his grip.
"What the-!?" Mordred exclaims.
"Wait, is that projection magecraft!?" Olga Marie yells over her holographic link.
"[Clarent.." The man snarls, blade glowing as he points it towards us.
"[Ath nGabla]." says Cu, and a crimson circle appears around the two of them.
"Tch." says Archer, blade disappearing from his grip. "So you placed the runes as you were moving, huh? How troublesome."
"What, not gonna try and use it on me?" says Caster with a smirk.
"And leave myself wide open to your [Wicker Man]? As if."
"So, same as always then?" Cu says, grinning as his staff ignites and he assumes a spear stance with it.
"Same as always." Archer replies, and a pair of dao-patterned shortswords appear in his hands.
Cu lunges, his staff smashing against Archer's blades, which crack under the force of the blow. For a moment, I think Caster has already sealed the deal - but then Archer drops the blades, a new pair appearing in his hands
"Well?" Cu calls out. "Get going! I've got him trapped fighting only me, and Saber's not gonna kill herself! I'll catch up with you in five minutes or so!"
"Heh. Don't die, Cu Chulainn! You still owe me that fight!" Mordred yells as we walk past the two.
"Worry about yourself!" He says with a chuckle, and we proceed deeper into the Ryuudou Temple.
Hanam leads us to a cave, deep within the forest behind the Temple, and we follow him in.
"So, Saber is in here, huh?" I mutter. It's one hell of a place for a king to have hidden himself away - more like the type of thing a Western dragon would do, now that I think about it.
"...From what I remember, this is the location of the Greater Grail. My recollection of the time after I was [Altered] is hazy, but I remember returning to existence in this cave." He says.
Eventually, the twisting tunnel gives way to a massive cavern. A faint purple light is visible from behind a curved stone wall, lighting the whole cavern. And atop that wall is-!
"Father! I've come to take the Grail off your hands!" Yells Mordred gleefully.
The woman on the wall gazes down on us. I can see the resemblance - their faces are almost completely identical. But Arthur's hair is tied back into a neat bun as opposed to Mordred's sloppy ponytail, and the differences only get bigger from there. Arthur's eyes are cold yellow as opposed to Mordred's green, and her armor is dark black as opposed to Mordred's silver.
She says nothing in response to Mordred. She merely raises her blade and…
"[Excalibur…"
Oi, she's opening with her strongest move!?
"Mash!"
"Yes, Senpai! Pseudo-deployment, begin! [Lord…Chaldeas]!" She yells, the now-familiar white wall appearing in front of us.
"...Morgan]!" roars Arthur, and darkness pours forth from her blade.
A/N:
Surprise early chapter!
Cu vs archer will get its own one-two chapter interlude, so don't worry about that.
Next chapter Monday or so.
REVIEW RESPONSES:
NoNameAvailable Bis said:
Minor nitpick, but wasn't Lord Chaldeas named so by Olga Marie after Mash used it once? Can't remember how the OVA did it though.
Fuck. Shoulda rewatched that entire scene an extra time. My bad. Ugh, but I don't want to let Subaru name the thing...
But yeah, I think this chapter might have lacked a little weight. Activating her NP is a major milestone for Mash, but here it seems mostly done as an afterthought and the focus is immediately thrust on Subaru once again. i guess retreading known grounds isn't terribly exciting, writing-wise, but I can't help finding it a bit sad that what she probably considered her first genuine accomplishment got kind of brushed over.
True. As I may have said before, I'm a bit impatient, so sorry about that.
said:
I can't wait to see the meeting between Subaru and Merlin. He's a white haired nonhuman who can't feel emotions yet always keeps a smile on his face and visits people in their dreams. Merlin is basically a more selfless Echidna. Subaru would be so creeped out by him.
Eh, there's a bit more difference between the two. Merlin doesn't have Echidna's unquenchable thirst for knowledge, after all.
Guest said:
Since so far I always leave a question but I was out of ideas I will ask something I thought while writing this.
What would happen if Subaru meets Salter alone and forces himself to tell her about RtD?
She dies, if he can finish telling her without dying of a heart attack, and before her just smiting him for daring to approach her alone.
So kinda unlikely.
(Is this my longest review thus far? Anyway nice chapter as always)
No clue. I've got no idea how to tell the difference between you and other guests ;P
NoNameAvailable Bis said:
Oh, somehow I was lagging one chapter behind for a couple of updates. Oh well.
On the plus side, double chapter for you I guess?
Hm. Well, not much to say about that one I suppose, though it's sweet to see the 'Victory' ritual make an appearance. Somehow I'd have thought Mordred would protest it more, but then again, it's kind of hard to predict her mood.
Addressed a little in this chapter.
And yeah, the whole issue about powerlevels is mostly academics. Ultimately, it's a matter of matchups and circumstances. It can be fun trying to imagine scenarios, or think about a particular confrontation (I remember watching a video on 'which servant could potentially take on Gilgamesh' which was pretty fun), but the logic of "X is S tier and Y is B tier, therefore X will win against Y all the time" is deeply flawed. And even if a Servant beats another once, it doesn't mean the same result would happen every time - the circumstances of the fight are often as important as the skillset of the combatants, if not more.
Yeah, servants are heroes. Most of them are experts in punching above their weight class.
SmugyBoy said:
I guess it would depend on the timeline of EMIYA.
Y'know, I said EMIYA, but I meant Kiritsugu. oops. Well, it holds true for both
Yes, the one before UBW would have a really bad affinity with Subaru, but the one after UBW, would be very similar to Subaru.
Hell, I could totally see the whole "that's hell your walking into" scene happen between EMIYA and Subaru.
Ehhhh, yes and no. Subaru's life philosophy is wildly different from both EMIYAs. It's more plainly visible in the side-stories, where he kinda loses it, but basically, Subaru is more like Heaven's Feel Shirou than any of the other EMIYA incarnations. He saves his friends first, and pretty much everyone who tries to hurt them (without working their way into his good graces first) meets a terrible fate.
Zennishi said:
I do wonder, since Hanam seems to be crippled - missing one arm, will Subaru ask Da Vinci make a new arm for him? She is rather good at constructing things, with the quality depending on the materials - maybe have upgradeable tiers, unless you plan on having Hanam just for this singularity.
I'm not sure at the moment, to be honest. Which means I gotta decide fast lol.
Or, will Subaru take advantage of Da Vinci's skillset to get ahomunculus body as a vessel (stronger body, and again, depending on materials quality can be better)? That would allow him to stand a better chance against the upcoming Singularities. Maybe get his Magic Circuits fixed in the process and learn some real Magecraft, be it from Olga, Romani, Da Vinci, or even better, the Servants.
Maybe also have Mashu learn so Magecraft, such as Reinforcement Runecraft or Healing?
Learning magecraft on earth takes a LOT of time, and most magi won't teach people outside their family unless it's a clock tower type deal.
Maybe even train/bond with some of the Servants. In canon Subaru did train after time time skip with Echidna's tomb, getting fitter and learning how to use a whip.
Probably.
Also, will Subaru meet Void Shiki/Akasha in the KnK Event?
Probably.
And lastly... will there be Sidestories? Like Bad Ends, just like canon Re Zero with What If: Sloth, Greed, Glutonny etc?
Probably.