23: Demon God Flauros
Troublesome. That's the word that sums this whole mess up. From the very start, my role in our king's plan has been nothing but troublesome. It wasn't as if I desired to walk among the humans, to be the one responsible for overseeing Humanity's incineration in 2016. And it wasn't as though there was no one else capable - certainly, Kimaris was too soft, and Amdusias too much of a slacker - but any of the other Information Center pillars could have done the job.
But in the end, my chance of failure was analyzed to be 0.0046 percent - around 0.0023 percent lower than the runner-up - and so I was given the role. And three thousand years later, when I assumed control of "Lev Lainur Flauros", the vessel prepared for me - the exact instant that I possessed him, is when things began to get messy.
It couldn't be called a problem. Not really. It was too minor to qualify as one. Just a tiny little slip-up, that's all. And it was an understandable error - we, the seventy-two Demon Gods, overestimated humanity. That was all. And so, when I arose within Lev, I was shocked to learn something completely absurd.
Lev Lainur had been born with a split personality. We had accounted for and eliminated the possibility of him developing one over the course of his life, but we had not prepared for the possibility of him being born with one. Indeed, we had thoroughly overestimated the stability of the human mind.
The purpose of the Lainur family was to produce an heir for the year 2015, whose personality was so similar to Demon God Flauros as to be indistinguishable. But, as expected of humans, they botched it. Of the three men sharing this body, only one was a proper mapping of me.
It didn't matter much, of course. In the end, even a crude simulacrum of my existence was more than capable of manipulating and moderating the other two long enough to reach the day that I properly awakened within him. Indeed, considering the circumstances, "Mr. Flauros" behaved admirably. Even if he was just a human imitation of someone greater than himself, I still feel some amount of respect for the man.
...Well, that sounds a bit narcissistic considering the circumstances, so I'll avoid mentioning it to the others. In any case, the fact remains that I was understandably a bit troubled when I properly awoke in 2015. The curiosity of "Lev Uvall" had involved me with the troublesome organization Chaldea, and the efforts of "Lainur Gusion" had given them some troublesome technology. The Near-Future Observation Lense, SHEBA, allowed Chaldea to foresee the incineration, and possibly even resolve the singularities.
Admittedly, the possibility was a small one, but since the salvation of humanity was on the line, I couldn't afford to take chances. And so, I planted bombs in the command room, and waited for July 30th, 2015.
And then, that day, the final troublesome element arrived.
Natsuki Subaru. Master candidate forty-eight. I had dismissed him, at first. Certainly, there was that miasma about him, a faint aura of stars and darkness - but I saw it as a non-issue. After all, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", or so they say; if the Seventh wished to observe our plan using some human as a proxy, it was no worry of mine. I had other things to worry about, such as that Saber's bizarre insistence on sustaining this singularity.
But, that was perhaps my largest blunder up to this point. Natsuki Subaru has been, without a doubt, the biggest hindrance thus far. His telekinesis saving so much of the command room staff at Chaldea means that I'll have to return there after this and finish the job. I'm not worried about that fool Olga - with her hysterical tendencies, she'd be rendered useless by my betrayal even after surviving. But there are five or six staff members who know enough to fill the role of director, and I can't have them taking over. It would be so much simpler if they'd just died when they were supposed to.
And, of course, Natsuki's intolerable conduct didn't stop there. Inconceivably, he managed to stumble his way through Fuyuki, summoned Mordred Pendragon of all people, defeated Artoria, called me out by name, and even nullified the curse of Angra Mainyu.
"I suppose this is my fault, though." I sigh, adjusting the brim of my hat to shield my eyes from the flames engulfing Mash Kyrielight's wall a bit better. Idly, I catch the Grail as it sails into my grasp. "Agent of the Seventh or not, I was a fool to adhere to human proverbs. The enemy of my enemy, is the enemy of my enemy, and nothing more."
"Dam-ghk!" Natsuki attempts to yell, interrupted by a mixture of blood and tar spewing from his mouth. "D-dammit! Mordred, the grail!"
"Right!" The servant yells back, before rocketing towards me with a mana burst. What a buffoon. If she'd engaged me in melee without waiting so long for him to give the order, I may not have been able to properly assert my control over the grail. But now…
"Ha! Hahahaha! You're too late, fool! I'll reintroduce myself - my name is Flauros! One of the Seventy-two Demon God Pillars, Demon God Flauros! Now, tremble, Chaldeans! Tremble in the face of our king's mercy!" I yell, flinging my arms wide. My flesh squirms, and the energy from the grail begins to transform this pathetic human shell-!
The grail slips from my hand. My transformation abruptly stops.
No, it didn't slip. From the start, it should have been absorbed into my body, so why-!?
I move to block an uppercut from the knight to treachery - but my arm twitches out of the way, and her fist meets my jaw head on. Of course, it's not so easy to knock out a Demon God, but-!
"You can't be serious! Now!? Now, of all times, this pathetic body tries to reject me!?" I hiss. It should be impossible. All three of the souls that this body once held were completely annihilated upon my awakening. And with me supplanting the soul, there should be no way for the body to rebel against me - the tiny amount of willpower it can manifest, shouldn't be enough!
"Senpai!" I hear Kyrielight yell as I scramble to my feet and start using my flames to get room between Mordred and myself. Again, I pull the grail to my hand, but as I do so, I happen to glance at Natsuki with my clairvoyance. His Mystic Code activates, patching his wounds, but before he does that, I catch sight of a broken and bruised jaw. Wait, did he-!?
Mentally, I search through my body, hunting through it bit by bit. Finally, I find it - something like a single thread of silk, spooling out from the center of my chest, and down to the core of Natsuki Subaru.
"Insects are prone to work in colonies, I suppose." I mutter with a scowl. "But, in the end, that only makes poisoning the nest far simpler!"
And with that said, I promptly send a part of myself down that invisible thread, and possess the foolish child.
Multitasking is simple enough for a superior life form such as myself. And so, even as my main body moves to reacquire the grail, I easily storm into the absolute depths of Natsuki Subaru's soul and crush him into the dirt.
A few faint silhouettes flicker at the edges of my sight as I do so, but none of the forms even attempts to approach me. If those pathetic shades were supposed to stop me...
"Is this it? You might even be easier to possess than Lev Lainur was! Fool, what did you even hope to accomplish!?" I ask, laughing as crimson eyes begin to open throughout the empty fields of his mental landscape. "Did you think that a few worms, working in tandem, could defeat a tiger? Are you an idiot?"
"No… it's... over, Flauros." He hisses defiantly, even as my foot crushes him into the writhing mass of tentacles that the ground has become. "Because… I re- ▬██▁▆█▆▀▬██▆!"
"...What?" I say, pausing. And then, suddenly, every eye, every squirming tendril of my body invading the landscape of his soul, freezes. Time itself, freezes. I can't move. I can't move.
"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you"
There's something behind me.
Black hands, darker than the night itself, erupt from the darkness behind me, tearing apart every tentacle or eye in sight with the greatest of ease.
Natsuki subaru squirms out from under my foot, and turns to face me.
"You introduced yourself, so it's only fair that I do the same." He says, dusting himself off. "I am… the Spirit Knight of Another World, Natsuki Subaru. And I'll be seeing you around, Flauros."
"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you"
The dark limbs cover me, slowly dragging me away from him. My body burns. It's unbearable. I'm certain, I'm certain now, that this man is-!
"[VII… of the End]..." I say, eyes wide with panic. I can't move. I can't move. "Please, not like this… don't… I don't want to die!"
"Seven of what? No, you've got the wrong guy. Besides, I can't tell her who not to kill. It'd be a lot easier on me if I could." He says with a shrug. And then his eyes narrow. "Of course… even if I had the power to… there's no way in hell I'd spare a guy like you."
I scream. I can feel the shadows mocking me. And finally, one last form fills my sight, before I'm swallowed by nothingness.
A shadow. With burning purple eyes, and gleaming tendrils of silver light extending from its head.
It's not the Seventh. It's far worse. Far, far worse. An abomination that should never have been here. Something that shouldn't exist on any level.
The Beast of another world.
I clutch my chest as I return to consciousness - I'm still me. Still Natsuki Subaru. It worked. Just like the time I got possessed by Petelgeuse, calling the witch kicked Flauros out of my body quite effectively. Up at the top of the grail, I see Lev collapse like a puppet with its strings cut. That's not the same as against the Archbishop of Sloth. And so, if he's not going back to Lev's body, then where-!?
The grail flares with golden light. Mash jumps in between it and me, and then a moment later, it explodes into a towering column of red flesh, covered in eyeballs with cross-shaped pupils.
"Ah… ah…!" A booming voice rings out from the pillar. "Natsuki… Subaru…! You..!"
Clouds of Smoke fill the air, and even the slight amount that touches me makes my skin start peeling away. But Mash is here, and the bulk of the deadly miasma doesn't touch me.
"Ah, he seems kinda mad, huh?" I say with a forced smile.
"The intelligence bureau... comes to order. We expose the past... and collapse the future!" He roars, and cracks on his body open up, more and more wildly rolling eyeballs emerging from it. The whole cavern, reaching far up into the sky, is surrounded by gleaming white rings of light.
"Oh crap! Mash, the shield!" I yell. "Mordred, get out of the cave if you can!"
"...That won't be necessary." Says a familiar voice. For an instant, he lands next to me - and then, Cu Chulainn leaps into the air, a spear awash in crimson gripped in his hand. And as he jumps, the spear starts to change shape, growing larger, and larger.
"[Gae…]"
"[Incineration Ritual-"
"[...Bolg]!"
The spear sprouts. Branches erupt from it, forming a mountainous latticework of red metal, all glowing with the same red fire. Hundreds of barbed crimson spearheads rip into the Demon God, and the whole mess explodes in an inferno of blood and magic.
When the flames and dust clear, all that's left is a loosely intact pile of flesh, flayed apart like the stuff you'd use making takoyaki.
"Ah… my king… where are you..? I cannot… find the temple…" The meat pile murmurs. "My king… my king… why have you forsaken me?"
And then, he dissolves into a small mountain of dark purple dust. The grail, materializing once again, plops down into it, raising a small cloud of dust.
"Heh. Seems like I made it just in the nick of time, huh?" Caster says as he lands in front of the Demon's remains.
He looks like hell. Other injuries aside, his right arm is completely limp, and flapping around like a wind sock.
"I could have taken him." Mordred says, hopping down from atop the stone cup to join us. She's carrying Lev on her shoulder - the guy's still breathing, too, so that's good.
"Yeah, yeah." Cu says with a grin. "That's why you were-"
"Lev!" Olga Marie suddenly yells, cutting Caster off. "Lev, you're alive! And, with the demon dead, does that mean-?"
"...No Demon. Demon's gone." Lev says in a raspy voice.
"Oh thank god… Lev-!" She says, smiling brightly through her tears - and then she sniffs , and straightens up. "I-I mean! Good! Then, I'll definitely scold you for this when you get back, you understand?" Faintly, I can hear laughter echoing from the command room.
"I...Understand..." The man rasps.
Mash smiles brightly, and Cu gives a small smile of his own, giving Lev a small pat on the back. "All's well that ends well, I guess." Says the Caster.
I heave a sigh of relief. The tension from before is finally starting to subside. "Yeah. I'm glad it all worked out alright. I am concerned, though… Caster, where's Hanam? He said he'd head over with you. Did you outpace him?"
Cu's eyes widen, and then something like realisation dawns on his face, and he sighs. "...Kid. What do you think happens to the remaining servants, when the grail is claimed?"
Slowly, a hole starts to open up in my stomach. "...No way. You're still here, right? And Mordred too! So-!"
He raises his limp arm, and a red light flashes from it. "I've been using my previous master's command spells to keep myself around. All out now, though, so I'll probably be heading along anytime now myself." He shakes his head. "As for your servant, she's connected to that Chaldea place, right? So it's only natural she'd stick around, since she's got a different power source."
"Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I yell, gritting my teeth. "So that's it? There's nothing to be done!? If he was going to die anyway, then why-?"
"Nah, he probably just returned to the throne." Caster says with a grin. "Sure, he was holding off Lancer when we parted ways, but he probably stalled her long enough that both just disappeared."
"Disappearing, dying, is there a difference!?" I yell. "He's still gone!" Should I kill myself? Even if I do, is there anything I can do about him disappearing? Goddamit!
"Sure there's a difference. It hurts a whole lot less, you know?" He shoots back with a wink. "Anyway, I've got about five minutes left, so-!"
I cringe. I don't have time to kill myself. If I screw it up, Caster will disappear too. So… "Director. Bring us home. And hurry."
"Huh?" Caster glances at me. "The hell are you...?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I say with a smile. "I'm bringing you back with us. I've got no intention of letting two friends disappear here, you know."
"Hey, I'm still a Caster, you know! I stole this spear from Archer, it's gonna disappear soon! So just let me disappear and summon me as a Lancer, dammit!" Cu Chulainn yells, waving his arms.
"...Beginning unsummon sequence!" Olga says. "You all better make it here safely! I'm gonna be pissed of one of you gets lost on the way back!"
Slowly, golden particles rise from the ground. "See you guys in a bit!" I call out to everyone, as the world dissolves into a tunnel of blue light.
-And then, suddenly, everything goes black.
There's a noise. A grinding of metal against metal, in an almost rhythmic fashion.
I stumble and fall over for a bit, and cool sand fills my fingers. Faintly, yellow-orange light shines down from behind me, and I turn around.
A corpse, riddled with blades, sliding in and out of its chest. Like the beat of a heart. Slowly, with more grinding of steel against steel, the swords embedded in his legs and arms drag him to his feet.
A broken husk of a man, with yellow eyes, and molten metal flowing from his wounds - the only source of light in this empty desert filled with swords.
"You… aren't going anywhere… Apostle of the Alien God..." rasps Archer. And slowly, lit by the dim glow of liquid gold pouring down from the sky, monstrous gears begin turning.
A/N:
Redman pulled this same fake death shit in UBW, so here we go again lol.
My ambitious goal is to finish the last chapter of arc 1 by Wednesday, in time for the first episode of Re:Zero season 2.
Review Responses:
orion399 said:
So, can Subaru completely resist most curses? Given that he ate Angra Mainyu's curse which happens to be very potent. Potent enough to slowly and painfully killed Kiritsugu and corrupt powerful heroic spirits like Arturia.
Well, in this case it's the difference between getting cursed and eating the curse. Think of it like a snake's venom - getting it injected into you by the usual means will kill you for sure, but it's nowhere near as dangerous when ingested. (That being said, I wouldn't recommend drinking snake venom. It won't be as effective as if it were injected, but it does still cause some negative side effects.)
Also, are there any positive or negative side effects to eating those curses? Or is that just a thing he can do without consequence?
Well, he pretty much puked them out immediately after digesting them, so other than nausea and a penalty for using Gluttony, there aren't any side-effects.
Mizen said:
Nice chapter as always. How would Subaru behave in a event like GUDAGUDA?
Subaru: *Confused internal screaming*
nanox876 said:
Isn't Rho Aias how Archer blocks Gae Bolg in the Moon Cell Holy Grail War of Fate/Extra?
No clue. Haven't played Extra. If he blocks the anti-unit, melee version of Gae Bolg, then that's news to me.
Fate said:
Alcides even though greater than berserker her would likely lose againt him because of his concepts, that's basically what Xorn is saying.
No, that's definitely not what I meant to say lol. Alcides (Heracles Alter) would probably be able to beat Herczerker, because he's got the ability to plan ahead, and his Nine Lives isn't suppressed like Herczerker's.
greedysubaru said:
you havent had subaru use the other abilities of the authority of greeds Stillness of an Object's Time (物体の時間の静止 Buttai no Jikan no Seishi) ability which enables
The user can stop the time of themselves or anything they're wearing, touched, or even their breath. This stops any interference from outside and only allows the user's interference outwards. This negates any attack against the user, and if the user waves their hand, anything in its trajectory is cut no matter the toughness. Atmosphere released from the stillness can cause shockwaves, gravel thrown around can become inevitable shots, and it can enable the user to travel at extremely high speeds. Normally, multiple uses of this ability can be deadly as the user's own heart also stops, however it can be circumvented when combined with another of the Authority of Greed's abilities.
Small King (小さな王 Chīsana Ō)
The user merges their heart with one of the people of his kingdom or in other words any woman that the user has confirmed to be their wife. With this, the user can use the effects of Stillness of an Object's Time as long as they wish to. As it is only a pseudo heart, even if the merge is destroyed the only aftereffect is that the user bears the burden again. Any conditions or effect area haven't been shown.
cor leonis is the reverse positive form of small king couldnt subaru use the authority of greed like regulus could ( and wouldnt giving stillness of time to servants he could make it as long as he wished to by merging their hearts so it wouldn't kill him or using small king like regulus did with his wives on his servants or mash or roman
Subaru can't use Regulus's Authorities. The witch factors appear to change function when they change holders. For example, Petelgeuse's unseen hand can't phase through things, while Subaru's can. Minerva's Wrath is superpowered healing, whereas Sirius's is sympathetic feelings and damage.
reinhardreid said:
the writer of re zero had stated that reinhard was stronger than reid
Then consider me corrected. Though if both were summoned as servants, that relationship might invert - Reid has more mystery, and could be construed as Reinhard's prototype, so he'd be a match for Reinhard if he became a servant.
But yeah, bump Reinhard up on that tierlist a few chapter's back. He's on Artoria's level, at least.