78: Child's Play
I haven't played quite enough chess to judge what to call this scenario. It's not bad enough to call a blunder; I haven't lost any material. But Siegfried's usefulness is totally restricted from here on out, and 'Fafnir' got away. There's no way I could call this a mere inaccuracy.
If I had to offer an excuse, it would be 'I'm not quite used to fighting as a servant yet' - which is why I unleashed my Noble Phantasm at the worst possible time. Holding it too long to ensnare Fafnir, but still wasting the mana.
It's not a total loss, though. I've learned plenty of important details from this encounter - but I'll have time to examine them after dealing with the incident at hand.
That is, the other thing preventing this confrontation from being a total loss.
Even after learning my identity, this Berserk Saber is still so tactically inept as to walk directly into my territory without the slightest urgency. Berserkers will go berserk, I suppose.
"Elegance, huh?" I say, addressing her directly. Idly, without any strain in my voice. As if talking about the weather, or an election in a distant country. Chevalier d'Eon's seems to be the talkative sort of madness, so I may as well lean into it. "I can't say that I'm terribly impressed so far. Just what was your plan - sending in Fafnir first, I mean?"
Of course, as I speak, the battle is already being waged. Eighty-one minor magical effects poke and prod at her passive defenses. All of her weak points are laid bare before me, and Kongming and I scheme as one.
…But seriously, what's with that statline? You're a minor duelist from the early modern period; why the hell have you got strength higher than Rider's!? Saber really is the strongest class, huh?
"Ah, that dragon? No, you misunderstand - I had not made any sort of plans with him." Berserk Saber shakes her head. "I do not possess any ability to communicate with dragons. The only thing you can blame for us arriving so close together is your own miserable luck."
Something about her answer sounded strange.
But we can't afford to focus on it right now - that point about Luck is far more important at the moment.
Something changed, even as she was speaking. Her Luck stat, which had been A-rank just a moment ago, has dropped to B-rank. Why? That wasn't my work. Siegfried too, I now notice - I'm quite sure that he had C-rank Luck while fighting Fafnir, but now it's dropped to E. Was it just a misread caused by his Legend bonus?
In any case, it benefits me at present, so I'll change the subject. With a flourish, Kongming's seven-string guqin appears in my hands. Barely looking at Berserk Saber, I sit cross-legged on the ground and pluck a nameless tune on the instrument. "If you were planning to fight us alone from the start, that strikes me as even less intelligent. Even more so now that you've seen my Noble Phantasm - surely you've realized my identity at this point. Do you really think you can fight me in my own territory?"
Hesitation flits across d'Eon's face. Of course, she's still sane enough to recall things from the Throne of Heroes. She knows the incident I'm referencing right now - that same [Open Fort Strategy] mentioned earlier, where Kongming played this same instrument in plain sight within an open fort in order to insinuate a trap that did not exist to his rival, Sima Yi.
The questions swimming through her mind are obvious. 'Does he want me to attack? Is he trying to scare me away? Is the trap real, or fake? Has he already learned enough about me to know whether I'll attack or not? Which is he expecting?'
Of course, it's obvious that she will choose to attack. She'd attack whether I did this or not. She's Berserk, after all. And so-
We both speak at once.
"'Do you really believe I'll fall for such a trick?' - is your next line."
"Do you really believe I'll fall for such a trick - what!?"
An extra element of doubt. The tiniest bit of added hesitation. She takes a single step backwards. I give the Berserk Saber a sly grin even as sweat rolls down my back. But I have her full attention now, so-
{Subaru, you should be able to heal Siegfried now without her noticing, so hurry up and do that.} I telepathically say, even as I open my mouth to continue speaking. "And so, of the four doors, option four, 'I attack and he doesn't expect it' has been eliminated. I'll even do you a favor - option three, 'I flee and he doesn't expect it' can also be eliminated. Will you change your choice of door?"
The 'Monty Hall Problem' is a cute little statistical paradox - in a hypothetical game show, the change of choice from one door to another yields a greater probability of winning the game.
It doesn't actually have any relevance here. The whole puzzle is based on total ignorance of the contents of the selected door. Irrelevance is the purpose of this non-sequitur. To simply cause her to recall pointless, confusing information from the Throne of Heroes and add another layer of befuddlement to her already Berserk mind.
She blinks once, twice, in contemplation - and then shakes her head, scowling at me. "Do you really think an idiotic thing like that will stop-"
"Well, it stopped you long enough." I say, grinning as the last of the mana I need is restored. "[Unreturning-"
Her eyes widen, my true objective revealed to her.
Attack? Flee? Iiiidiot! What you gave me was the best option of all - doing nothing at all while I recharged my Noble Phantasm!
"[Fleur de-!" She shouts, lunging forwards-
"-Formation]!" -but it's already too late for that. A stone column intercepts her strike, and seven more join it in a ring surrounding her. Finally, a ceiling emblazoned with a Dao lands atop the columns, completing the Bagua and trapping Berserk Saber within my Stone Sentinel Maze.
It's not foolproof, of course. But whatever mental debuff resistance Chevalier d'Eon possessed would have to be suppressed in order to drive her mad, so I can't imagine she'll be able to escape any time soon. Since she'll be suffering continuous damage the whole time… she'll probably be dead long before that point.
"You! D-damn you-!" Chevalier d'Eon's shout of rage begins to give way to screams of pain as dazzling light begins to sear her skin. "Release me! Release me, you cur - how dare you stop me! I have to - kill! I HAVEN'T FINISHED KILLING YET, SO LET ME GO, YOU SCUM!"
"As if I'd let you go, if that's your argument." I let out a small sigh, the tension slowly bleeding out of my stiff shoulders as I stand back up and dematerialize the guqin once more. I could really use a smoke, but if I keep my pace from yesterday, I'm going to run out of tobacco before the singularity is over.
"I… no, wait, let's not raise any flags here." Says Subaru.
"Flags…?" Merry asks-
"You! Ohhh, you! Girl with the vile eyes - come closer so I can butcher you!" Berserk Saber screams. "Die, die, France, die! You deserve to die, you all deserve to die!"
-the girl winces and looks away from d'Eon. "...Lord El-Melloi, can you please just…"
Obviously, hearing screams like that would be unsettling for a normal person. The reason I'm not bothered is…
My influence, of course. For all the separation I've tried to maintain between us, there will still be some inevitable bleedthrough.
…Or so he says. As for my Master… his brow is furrowed, but his eyes are cold. As expected of a Clock Tower student, he's not so mindlessly compassionate as to pity someone who would have killed us without a second thought.
As for Merry's question, though - "Sorry, I'll shut her up now." A Bagua mirror appears in the air in front of me, charging a blast of magical energy to fire at the immobilized Saber-
Wait. Something is wrong.
I pause. Kongming is right.
Why didn't I kill d'Eon immediately? When James Bond is helpless, it's obvious that the villain ought to just bloody shoot him - so why didn't I?
It is fundamentally impossible for Zhuge Liang to make a tactical blunder of that sort. Our skills and legend do not permit it.
Which means that not killing d'Eon is the correct choice. It is to my ultimate advantage that I did not strike her down immediately. And just as I realize that-
"[Fleur de Lys]!" Berserk Saber roars, and plunges her rapier into her own gut.
Her eyes take on a glassy quality, as my bounded field detects sudden drops in all of her physical parameters. Why would she-!?
And then she moves, leaping out of my Noble Phantasm in a single movement.
"So that's your game." I scowl. Some kind of glamour effect on her weapon, allowing her to override the mental attack of Unreturning Formation with one of her own. However-
"Useless." I say, as an explosion erupts between us, hurling Berserk Saber into the air. "Did you honestly think you could still win after dropping your own physical parameters?"
She pivots in the air, feet impacting the wall of a building, preparing to launch herself back at me, but-
"That's a trap, too." The wall gives way beneath her feet, and the building collapses in on top of her. And even as the rubble begins to stir-
"Did you think that was all?" Another explosive trap attached to the building's foundations detonates, flinging her into the air once more as I materialize my [Feather Fan].
"[Fleur de-!" Berserk Saber shouts, back arching into a strangely stylish pose as blood trails behind her-
"As if I'd let you! Come, wind!" Nine wind spells spring to life with a wave of the fan, and with razor precision, snip her hand off at the wrist, her sword plunging uselessly to the ground-
"-Lys]!" She finishes - and Lillies fill the air.
"-Shit!" I shout, preparing a counter - but I find myself unable to move. Unable to do anything but stare at the flowers.
The worst possible trump card - a second Noble Phantasm, with the same damn name as the first, one that does not strictly rely upon the sword to use, one that immobilizes all observers.
Chevalier d'Eon's landing is sloppy, doubtless due to her broken legs. She flops across the ground, with only one fully working limb, dragging herself slowly to where her sword had fallen. She's a sitting duck. At this point, absolutely anyone could finish her off - but I can't do anything. All I can do is watch the gently falling flowers as her manic laughter echoes through the town square.
"I did it! Haa.. hahaha! All that's left is… haha… kill you! Kill you all!" Berserk Saber laughs, crawling across the flagstones on all fours, drawing closer and closer to her weapon. "You deserve to die! You all deserve to-!"
But the first one to reach the sword, desperately snatching it from the ground a mere five seconds before she could reach it, the only one unaffected by her Noble Phantasm - is Merry d'Lyon.
"You…" Chevalier d'Eon mutters, gazing up at the girl, who points the rapier back at her with trembling hands. "You WRETCHED PEASANT!" She scrambles forward, frothing at the mouth, heedless of the way her broken legs twist and squelch as she moves, screaming in hatred. "Die! Die, after all we did for you, die, die! Die, France, die die diediediediediedie!"
d'Eon lunges forward, arms flailing and teeth gnashing like an animal - but it will be enough. Even with her injuries, even with her stats lowered by her own Noble Phantasm, that wild flailing will be enough to break every bone in this poor peasant girl's body-
Something in the air shifts. One final trap I had set in my territory, to activate on the condition that an enemy with Luck of C-rank or lower appeared, springs to life.
Nine curses of ill fortune strike like vipers, and d'Eon slips on her own blood.
She tumbles forward, losing momentum, limbs splayed out in an attempt to catch herself - and in that instant, the 'ordinary peasant girl' Merry d'Lyon thrusts the rapier through Berserk Saber's eye.
A single red trail leaks from her eye. "You wretched… Ingrates…"
And then, Berserk Saber crumbles into golden dust.
Another shift. A change in the air, a strange THRUM of a layer being peeled away from reality. It makes my skin crawl, but I can feel it now. The vaguest sensation, not a reality yet, but something like an 'implication' - that the girl standing there, holding that rapier, is a Servant.
So that's it.
…Have you figured it out?
I had a hunch before, but even I'm not that well informed on the concept, so I didn't share. But between the changes in luck, the girl's ability to sense incoming enemies, and a Servant that 'should' have been summoned, the evidence seems incontrovertible.
Tell me, El-Melloi, have you heard of a class called [Watcher]?
It's El-Melloi II, you ass.
Class: Watcher
Alternate Classes: Caster, Foreigner
True Name: ○○○○○
Alternative Names: "Watcher of the Depths", "Evil god of the Reef"
Alignment: Chaotic[Lawful] Evil[Good]
Armaments: -
Manifestation Cost: -
Bio:
"The summoning ritual failed." - was a misunderstanding. Merry was too terrified to correct Siegfried on it, and did her best to ignore the shadow whispering in her ear all this time.
But in the end, there was no escaping it. The thousand year scheme of a fallen god might be undone by a hero, but in the end, just as she surmised, Merry was an ordinary peasant girl. From the moment the Command Spells were granted to (or perhaps drawn forth from) her by Watcher, Merry d'Lyon had not a single hope of escape from the destiny chosen for her.
Of course, this Watcher is a different Watcher from that summoned in Fate/Strange Fake - he is just a bit more 'standard' than she is. If such a word can even be applied to the oddity among oddities that is the Watcher class. Without need for the Shadows employed by her, he communicates with his summoner directly. The goal of his manifestation, the trials facing his Master, the final result of her inevitable transformation - all of these differ from those shown by "Watcher of Snowfield".
Parameters
Strength: -
Endurance: EX
Agility: -
Mana: EX
Luck: -
NP: B+
Class Skills:
Territory Infringement: D-
An anecdote regarding a certain Semitic Artifact has further weakened this skill.
Magic Resistance: EX-
The same artifact noted above remains a critical weakness for Watcher that will bypass his Magic Resistance entirely.
Existence Outside the Domain (False): C
Unlike the "True" version of this skill, it does not prevent the bearer from corrosion due to obscurity on alien worlds. It still suppresses Mad Enhancement.
Personal Skills:
Fallen God: A+
What was once divine has become monstrous; what was once sacred has become reviled. Similar to the skill [Innocent Monster]. It distorts the bearer's body into the form of a monster - unlike Innocent Monster, this skill also affects the mind directly, corrupting the bearer's alignment and granting them Mad Enhancement of an equivalent rank.
The Mad Enhancement portion of this skill has been suppressed by [Existence Outside the Domain], but the monstrous transformation has been enhanced even further into something unspeakable.
Divinity: -
Suppressed by [Fallen God].
Watcher: D
Watcher of the Depths communicates directly with his Master, unlike Watcher of Snowfield.
Coronation of ○○○○○○○○: A
A skill which allows the imposition of trials upon his master. This skill does not allow the direct manipulation of destiny, but does allow him to manipulate the Luck stat of all those who carry his blood in their veins.
Universal Bird's-Eye: D
Dweller of Another Phase: A-
Watcher's Noble Phantasm enables full manifestation under certain conditions.
Noble Phantasm:
?