Rivis was on the defense, alarms ringing in her head as her instincts told her that this adventurer was much more dangerous than initially gauged for a recent Level 6 adventurer. It was akin to fighting a Level 7 and she never fought one before since the only one belonged to Freya. Yet the sudden boost in speed and power was warrant enough for a retreat if only she were fast enough to escape. But Ais Wallenstein proved to be more formidable than she initially appears, especially with the wind following her command and making this a battle of attrition.
Revis was slowly being picked apart while she analyzed her opponent's movements, trying to develop a strategy to counter her as the wind was cutting away at her flesh little by little, no doubt due to Ais's unique power. The Creature became more alarmed as the dual wielding swordswoman was aiming at a particular part of her body, the spot where her magic stone was embedded even if she never revealed its location to anyone yet.
Somehow, the Sword Princess knew where it was and for the first time in her limited existence a sense of desperation and excitement was coursing through her body. She was facing a powerful being that she, who had killed many weaklings in the past, could now push herself to the limit when facing this surreal foe. If she were in Knossos then she'd have been able to harness the environment and the Demi-Spirits to push her body to its utmost limit against Ais and put everything on the line to defeat her.
The sky was set aflame and starlight flashed every now and then against divine light in a power struggle of some sort. Whomever they were, to take on a God using their Arcanum was suicide but impressive at the same time for being on par with one. If she ever lived long enough, she had to face that person if Ais doesn't kill her first.
Divine light clashed against stellar flames and indomitable spirit.
The towering dark entity hovered protectively over Hakuno as the manifestation of the Vortigern avatar snarled at the tyrannical god. It was given its name and purpose when Hakuno looked at the Vile King's legend in a different lens than that of humanity. He wanted to protect the Mystery of Britain, to ensure there was a means to provide something to humanity in case extraterrestrial threats like Velber ever appeared again. But when King Arthur forced the Isles to the Age of Man, humanity no longer could properly access the Mystery required to arm themselves properly against any alien invader.
But Hakuno decided to take up the task of preserving Mystery in the case of a more serious threat to humanity's extinction. ORT and Velber were the main dangers to Humanity as a whole. ORT as a living extinction level event just by being on Earth, and Velber because they're the reason the Mystery of the World fell into such harsh decline. Earth's potential in this universe came to a screeching halt with promising heroes after mythological heroes faded in stories. But now here in a timeline that she believed both the Gardener and Winnower were involved in creating, mankind can have that taste of promised potential alongside the other races that went extinct. New heroes, new legends, new hopes.
She glanced at the Flaming War-Lance, crafted by using her sister's lance as a template to create this Holy Lance of Flame. There was a faint hairline in its structure as the augmentations to the weapon with common metals was straining under the intense magical power of its new form. "Jeanne Alter, Lord Elohim, Helel to me! Gil prepare your treasury on my command. Nero be on standby in case the others are incapacitated." Hakuno ordered as she noticed Lilith slithering in the shadows, preparing her own sneak attack as the Dark Matron was gathering magical energy for her own surprise.
"Show me what you can do, MY Cypher." Deus demanded in an amused voice as He slouched back a bit, the massive god looking down at them with no worry in His eyes.
"I am the Captain of the Hestia Familia. I will protect the Hearth from those that dare harm the warmth it provides to those in need!" she shouted with a controlled fury as she launched at Him like a shooting star. Her lance clashing against His backhand slap and twisting the handle to cause the lance's flames to combust. Deus frowned at that and examined the injury in mild surprise at the damage inflicted upon him while Helel fired a barrage of light beams at Him.
"Fallen God, it is time for you to abdicate your throne." the Ruler Servant stated with confidence before calling down a star unto Deus's head.
"Insolent child, always believing you can do better. Perhaps it's time I admonish you the proper way this time My Morning Star." Deus growled out, summoning angels to his side. They were grotesque in appearance, mockeries of the already inhumane appearance of actual angels for these things were twisted beings of flesh and steel. Suddenly, Noble Phantasms rained down on them without mercy, crushing their existence like paste while Deus turned to glare at the smug King of Heroes while his Gate of Babylon was open with numerous treasures aimed at him.
"Firebolt!" Elohim/Bell shouted, their united will causing the spell to be in a state of Limit Off due to the overflowing emotions of the two people in the same body. They had dashed under Deus's chin and with both knives overflowing with flames and thunder, did a cross cut under the jaw. The effect was instantaneous, as Deus looked as if a train rammed into him from underneath when he was knocked back and deep gashes at the throat before a pulse of energy knocked everyone back.
"Foolish choice [Me], for I am your superior here." Deus raised a hand and meteors fell from the sky. "So how does this feel, Kishinami?" He asked while the four were dodging and taking some damage from that attack.
"The pebbles back in Orario's marketplace cause me more grief." Hakuno spat out harshly.
"Hmph, such arrogance. Probably from that cur of a king's foul attitude rubbing off on you. I shall correct that once I'm done with you." Deus took a deep breath and exhaled, causing a storm of wind blades to fly towards them as Vortigern answered by protecting both its conjurer and her allies with its body, taking some damage that began to repair itself already from the attack.
"You need a breath mint God." Jeanne Alter noted while fanning her face in mild disgust. "Just what have you been eating or that's just morning breath?" Deus just looked at her, unamused as he snapped his fingers to fire down a bolt of thunder at the Avenger. Only for it to do no damage to the Servant who grinned darkly thanks to the timely usage of her skill as dark flames filled with resentment and grudges danced around her. "Look to me O' Lord, for I present to you my raging madness, my resentment, my hatred. Behold, the Noble Phantasm that howls for the blood of the divine!"
"Le Grondement de la Haine!"
Her roar of rage etched into her Saint Graph manifested itself as a wave of hellfire and to the surprise of Hakuno, those flames could actually harm Deus. Seeing those flames, her Cypher power responded in kind as Hakuno's flaming lance was being infused with cursed flames from every life taken by either the followers of Deus or the god Himself. The prayer of justice (revenge) was surging like a maelstrom as the Demonic Lance of Blazing Retribution was born of Hakuno's power.
*Chaldea*
"What in the world is that?!" Goredolf demanded in shock at the feed he was seeing as even Merlin was taken aback by the holy lance's transformation into a demonic one. They knew depending on wielders of a specific weapon type Noble Phantasm its properties change, but never had it been witnessed like this before. This changed everything Merlin thought he knew about Morgan's daughter by a massive margin. There was something he must have overlooked as the great detective himself was analyzing the weapon with confusion.
"It appears that Kishinami-san somehow imbued the weapon with flames similar to Jeanne Alter's cursed flames. But these flames are more potent and seem to carry an Anti-Divine property attuned specifically to the Abrahamic God, as a weapon to specifically kill God." Holmes deduced.
"That's utter blasphemy!" Vlad exclaimed in anger. "The Lord works in mysterious ways for the good of humanity unlike the pagans. So why would anyone ever make a weapon to kill Him!?" the Berserker demanded, some of the other Servants of different cultures and faiths only shook their heads, knowingly about something Vlad did not.
"I've heard how the Lord's faith and followers have worked and done things both good and bad over the years after I met the Savior long ago." Martha began, looking almost sad. "There had to be rage, resentment, hatred of the Father for the actions His followers have done over the years that were considered terrible. A curse so horrible that at this moment, manifests as a weapon aimed at the Lord Himself." That made some of the Heroic Spirits that were followers of the Abrahamic faith pause at that and reflect on the actions of fellow believers in the past including themselves. The actions of the past have consequences in the present and future.
That is why they are seeing the God they believe in is so hated strongly by people in this Lostworld for the actions of His followers. The sins of the past have come back to haunt them in the form of the most blasphemous act: deicide of God.
Ritsuka wasn't much of a religious person, but she felt some sympathy for her Servant's plight of this sight before them on the screen. Given how she's been involved with the deaths of a few gods herself with a good reason for survival and this time she's not fighting for her life right now to analyze Hakuno Kishinami a bit more as a person and her profile they were able to pull up. From their records on her, Hakuno Kishinami was born in 1983 which caused a state of confusion for Da Vinci and Holmes when they checked her profile. The girl didn't look a day past seventeen years old and she fought with skills of a master warrior, and she was supposed to be forty-seven years old since she, BB and her Alter Egos were supposed to be from the year 2030. Both of her parents were Japanese, no family line originating from Britain at all so Ritsuka knew something was up.
She knew Servants recalled things from previous Holy Grail Wars that took place in different parallel worlds, so her speculation was that this Hakuno Kishinami wasn't the one from their own world. This one came from a parallel world that allowed this girl to be a descendant of Morgan le Fae due to the circumstances in that parallel world. But Hakuno's abilities were beyond that of normal magi, even with Age of God era influence on magecraft's strength.
All this did was make Hakuno even more enigmatic and dangerous than she appeared now even when fighting God at His peak. Just what is it that made this girl more dangerous? The question was eating away at the Master of Chaldea as she wanted to meet this girl for herself and understand why. Cypher…Cypher, what was this 'Cypher' Deus called Hakuno exactly?
Who or what was this version of Hakuno Kishinami they were dealing with? How and why does she have such abilities that the Mage's Association would foam at the mouth at seeing? But most importantly, is she an ally to Humanity, or an enemy?
Those were the questions wandering in the mind of Ritsuka as she watched this battle against the divine rage in the Lostworld.
"Let there be Light!"
And thus, the battlefield was filled with light. Blinding all in the light of a god's grace.
Penacony arc ending with Firefly banner. Hyped for Chuuni Kamen Mecha Girlfriend!
Just finished playing Destiny 2 The Final Shape campaign. I remember when I started the first game on launch day in 2014, a newborn Guardian in a mysterious world unfamiliar to me, exploring the cosmos and battling the forces of Darkness. I've been through ups and downs with that game, and in the finale with some of the familiar music returning in full circle as the Light and Darkness saga ends, gives me a feeling I can't describe. Thank you Destiny for telling me a story for the last 10 years. A story I won't be forgetting anytime as the Light and Dark influence my works. I'll be concluding Lunar Witch with a few more chapters and completing this story. Then take a break and work on Dark Seeks Light before working on Lunar Witch's sequel [Familia Myth: Dreaming Moonlight] which is 1.5 before moving on to Part 2 where Hakuno and Chaldea finally meet.
See you all starside Masters, Trailblazers, and Guardians alike.