119: With a final sound of thunder.
Oda Nobunaga
As lightning crackles around me, I hurtle through the air, feet firmly planted on a matchlock rifle. Below, I can make out Dagon as he rambles something or other about his role as a god and a monster.
Blah blah blah, who freaking cares?
I mean, I care a little bit, because the time he spends talking means he's not fighting. I need just a little longer to reach him.
When Chaldea faced Dagon in my original timeline, it was an unbelievably close shave. Not only was he a Divine Spirit on his home turf, he had also absorbed the power of the imaginary planet of calamity, Taisui. We only won through the sacrifice of allied Servants, the overwhelming power of Servants like Meltryllis and Morgan, and a last minute trick to steal away the power of the absorbed Taisui.
That said, Taisui isn't in play here, and we have a Grand Servant. The issues remaining are that home field advantage, and the fact that the Argo can't handle prolonged exposure to this storm of his, let alone that big wave of toxic water he was slinging around back during the Water Monster Crisis.
Given those requirements, our counterattack is obvious.
(The sky goes dark, and only my Special Archer Eyes™ help me see as Dagon lets out a distorted roar below.)
I plunge towards the fight, rain beating against my grinning face, and see Benkei's two remaining clones sprint towards the fishman, levitation mystic codes propelling them. We had to leave three on previous islands, and we only had five to begin with. This is why I wanted to roll the Benkei gacha a few more times, but he countered with stupid concerns like 'not running out of mana completely'. Can't be helped, I guess.
Sparks light up the storm-shrouded night as Dagon's claws repel a rapid series of Katana and Odachi strikes from both sides-
"[Gae…" On the deck of the argo, a spear blazes with malevolent light-
-But a stray motion of one of Dagon's hands in the midst of his frantic deflections directs a bolt of lightning towards the boat, forcing the Caster to cancel his Noble Phantasm and raise a barrier of flaming wood.
That's enough, though - I'm in range.
"[Demon King of the Sixth Heaven]!" I shout with glee, and a world of fire swallows Benkei, Dagon and myself.
As I stated before, the fires of my Reality Marble can't tell friend from foe, and Benkei will certainly pay a price for his presence here. But he's a Grand Servant, and already less weak to the Reality Marble's damage bonuses than a true Divine Spirit. Since I toned it down a bit by forgoing the full chant, he should be able to survive the first few seconds of its opening with both bodies intact, whereas our foe-!
"[Rage-Filled Current]!" Dagon roars, a tide of primeval ooze surging from who-knows-where, stifling the fires of Honnouji. As a non-servant, he doesn't possess a true Noble Phantasm, but that's the closest comparison to this attack.
But that's fine. It can't be helped, and besides, we accounted for it anyway. Him dying immediately would have been convenient, but just being in my Reality Marble is debilitating as-is. He's lost the home field advantage, and can't damage the Argo anymore. He can't even fly, so all Benkei and I need to do is-
I laugh as I perform a barrel roll to dodge a lightning bolt, aim mid-roll, and rapidly fire and discard four guns.
Dagon ducks, and I miss his eye, tearing through the fin on his head instead, but Benkei #1 capitalizes with an iai strike towards the lowered head as Benkei #2 thrusts towards his back-
He catches the first with his teeth, twisting out of the way of the second as he launches into something resembling a crocodile's 'death roll', pulling the first's sword from his grip. As he dips beneath the sludge conjured by his earlier attack, he emerges with something gripped in his hands - whipping the spine of some enormous dead fish towards them, he beats back the two clones.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅-!" His distorted roar rings out again, and I feel my strength falter slightly - so it's a skill, not just meaningless noise, huh?
I fire again. This time, one of my shots connects, and he howls in fury as my bullet takes his left eye and a chunk of his face, flinging the skeleton towards me and following with a cluster of lightning bolts.
By this point, both Benkeis have recovered, and they strike in unison - Benkei #1 with a newly drawn spear -
Dagon turns and lunges, focusing on Twokei and letting Onekei's spear bite into his undefended stomach. He beats aside the Odachi and drives a purple-shrouded claw into Benkei #2's stomach, emitting a burst of lightning as he does so. An instant later, his tail beats back Benkei #1 as the spear comes free, tearing away almost two thirds of the fallen god's midsection in the process.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅-!"
"Rin Pyou Tou Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen!" Benkei #2 rapidly chants while backing up under my covering fire, clutching a stomach awash in a sinister looking curse. Benkei #1 rights himself and sprints back towards the fishman-
"[Rage-Filled Current]!" Dagon roars again - it's already recharged!?
A geyser of rotten sludge erupts, and I'm already gripping a rifle and flying away as quickly as I can when he explodes out of said column of water, single eye burning with hate as he stretches his claws for me.
I'm not moving fast enough. He's going to catch me.
But… him being up here means there's no need to worry about friendly fire.
I need to dispel my reality marble in order to use it, but if he hits me, it'll end anyway, so-!
"This is the end! [Three Line Formation]!" I shout.
Dagon, god of distortion, struggles forward, even as my hail of fire continues to reduce him to an unrecognizable hunk of flesh - and then a spear thrown by Benkei impales him, and then a Naginata, and the the Odachi, and then a massive arrow, and finally, he dies, and the screaming wind begins to slow.
"Humans… Heroic Spirits… I curse you… twofold! In… some other sea… I will-!"
In the distance, I hear one last clap of thunder.
Wait, hang on, one of those weapons-!
-It's a bit sudden, but let's talk about my summoning.
It goes without saying, but a direct summoning from another Chaldea is the highest degree of nonsense. Even Gudaguda particles aren't enough to explain this degree of silliness - so the question is, what could?
To be honest, considering the chaos going on back home at the point of my summoning, I had assumed it was enemy action at first. I might have been snacking while on standby for the next wave, but it's not like the situation was normal. Who's to say that that thing's next phase wouldn't start aggressively teleporting us to false histories? It probably had abilities like that at this point, after all.
But I don't think that's the case. A Tree of Emptiness probably couldn't simulate multiple singularities, and Natsuki Subaru has already gone through two.
By this point I'm pretty sure Subaru isn't some bad guy out to do weird stuff to Mash, even if the 'there's an evil me we need to beat' plot is played out at this point.
I did it first, so it doesn't count as uncreative in my case!
…All that aside, it's probably for the best that I played dumb. If Goetia is around, he's got perfect clairvoyance, so yammering about how Chaldea beat him in my timeline would totally screw this one over. Talking about Lostbelts and whatnot is a no-go too, since that'll imply his defeat. The scenario is 'I was teleported from just after Camelot, and I wasn't paying much attention so don't count on me for spoilers!' All of the clairvoyants back home always kept quiet anyway, and it's not like my knowledge is anywhere near helpful. We allied with Jason here, and the guys who helped Ritsuka all got corrupted.
No, it's better for Subaru to walk his own path, with me providing advice and identifying Servants here and there - and then, after Goetia is dead, I can spill the beans and we can try to stop the Crypters.
Besides, the lack of spoilers means I get to laugh at Subaru if something dumb shows up early! Imagine the look on the guy's face if Ranmaru shows up and my head goes poof again!
…Ah, that's why I thought about all this, huh?
-The oversized arrow, launched from miles away, completes its path through my neck, and I fall off my shoulders, tumbling over and over, into the waves below.
Natsuki Subaru
It was going so well. Dagon was dying just as planned, under a hail of gunfire and weapons from Benkei's two remaining clones. He gave final, defiant words-
And then, in a blur of motion, Georgios shoots to my side - "[Bayard]!" - and summons his horse in front of Mash. A clang rings out as he parries a massive arrow with his sword, and I hear a crunch as every bone in his arm shatters.
Similar arrows impact the ship. One bounces off Bayard - right, he can deflect one attack - and one is repelled by Cu's [Protection from Arrows]. None target Jason. Both Benkeis react in time to deflect their shots. The rest - find their marks. One tears through Nobunaga's neck, and all ten remaining Mini-Nobbus perish in similar fashion.
Before most of us can even react, the second volley comes.
Georgios, catching his sword in his other hand, deflects another, at the cost of his second arm. A hole appears in Bayard's flank, all the way through his body as an arrow clangs against Mash's barely raised shield on the other side of him. The wounded Benkei clone strains his body in some way, and the second shot finds its mark in his chest, only the monk's insane durability allowing him to stay standing. A hole is torn through Nobunaga's already headless body's chest.
Finally, painfully slow, essentially too late, my command spell comes to life.
"Mash!" Use it instantly!
"[Lord Chaldeas]!" A hurricane of wood smashes against the chalk-white wall, raised just in time. Somehow, Benkei made it behind - only one of him, though.
Finally, after what feels like an hour, the hail of arrows ceases - and then I feel it. An intense pressure that makes me almost vomit - or rather, the opposite of pressure, since this is the feeling of all of the ambient mana in the vicinity suddenly being swallowed up.
I can see him now, as the clouds clear, under the light of a starry sky, and I understand my mistake.
'We should let Reid and Heracles fight it out, and take on whoever won while they're injured. Reid is also a probable enemy, so without Euryale's charm on the table, we shouldn't mess around with getting involved.' - Is what I had thought.
But if I knew things would turn out like this, I would never have said that.
'The Gluttony Witch Factor shouldn't be an issue. The odds of Heracles even being compatible are pretty low, and even if he can use it, Gluttony tends to start out weak and get stronger with use. With him having no meals at hand, he won't get much stronger, and accounting for the wounds he gets from Reid, he'll still net a loss in power in all likelihood. And if he isn't compatible, it might just kill him and save us the trouble. That's why I held back from using the Greed factor we got from Regulus, after all.' - Is what I thought.
But instead, what meets my eyes is a possibility that I hadn't even considered, since it was too awful to imagine.
Perched atop a newly formed Iceberg, having moved here at impossible speeds, is a man of the same stature as Benkei. He's wearing a tattered cloth that covers his head and drapes down over his body, and clutching a bow in one hand.
And, circling his head like a crown are thirteen glowing pink horns, just like what I saw on Rem's forehead so long ago. Floating in the air, I see four copies of him, made of ice - Emilia's technique. And it goes without saying that what got him here so fast was that teleportation technique the Gluttony kids loved so much.
The possibility that Heracles could acquire the Gluttony Witch Factor, access the meals eaten by its previous holder, and use the [Total Eclipse] that Ley demonstrated in France - was something I had not even considered.
At this time, Natsuki Subaru did not understand that his grim analysis of the situation - was an understatement.
[Total Eclipse] is fundamentally a suicide technique for any of the three Heroic Spirits who naturally possess it. Even Reid Astrea, if he were to use it, would be swallowed after a minute of steady erosion by the wailing souls and remembered grudges of those devoured by [Gluttony].
However-
Heracles Alter - Alcides - possesses the [Avenger] class skill, which transforms grudges directed at the bearer into strength. Worse still, the grudges of those devoured will only compound the longer the Noble Phantasm remains active. In other words, rather than losing his existence… Alcides will continue to grow in strength for as long as the eclipse continues.
Furthermore, the defective gates and Oni horns acquired by Batenkaitos and Alphard allow him to absorb enough ambient mana to not only pay for the Noble Phantasm's continuous activation, but also to offset his tremendous manifestation cost.
As a result of these factors, the duration Alcides can retain use of [Total Eclipse]... is unlimited.