"Homura, Gudrun's been defeated, and the rest of us are in position to tackle the two remaining objectives. What's the plan?"
"Move everyone who's still able to fight over to deal with that monster," Homura replies. You really hope you aren't too late.
You really hope Homura – and especially Kirika, since you know Oriko must still be out there – is staying safe and not getting herself into any more trouble. "We need to bring that thing down as soon as possible. According to Kirika, Berserker thinks we might be able to do that by cutting it off from its ability to tap into Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed."
So that's what those two are thinking;
"And I suppose that makes me one of the best men for the job," you say.
"Do I have your permission?"
"You have my permission to use your Unlimited Blade Works the instant you have the opportunity to do so," Homura says.
"I'm counting on you, Archer."
You'll take that as the best news you can get from Homura. "All right, we're moving out," you say to everyone else within earshot. "Our objective is the big one."
Lancer and Medusa both nod their heads in affirmation, though Medusa looks a bit more worried than Lancer does. "It may be some time before I am able to use Bellerephon again," she says. "I hope that will not slow you down any."
"Berserker can buy you time if you need it,' Illya says. "Archer, did you get permission from Homura to-?"
"Yes," you say. Looking to Medusa, you add "But if it's feasible, I can hold off using Unlimited Blade Works until Rider is ready. We'll need all of our heaviest hitters hitting that thing with their heaviest attacks." Misaki approaches, and she makes several gestures to her spellbook, along with a few unintelligible grunts through her wired-shut jaw which you can't make out. "Sorry there isn't any better way of communicating with you," you say to her. "Just try to follow our lead. You did a pretty good job of that against Gudrun."
You can't believe you actually had something nice to say about that little blue-haired rat.
You also can't believe just how big this thing actually is, now that you're within range to fight it. "We… Maybe have underestimated this thing," you say. You swallow the rising fear in your throat, and push forward. "But it's too late to back out now. Let's do this. Lancer, Heracles, coordinate your movements with everyone else." Lancer and Illya look to one another, and nod their heads as you move on to "Medusa, when you give the signal that you're ready to go, I'll activate Unlimited Blade Works. Hammer that thing, hard and fast. Get in close with Rider and back each other up."
"Understood."
That's easier said than done, standing back and doing nothing while you wait for the moment to strike. As an Archer, it's something you have to be good at, especially when it comes to waiting for the right moment to let your projectiles fly. You glance over to Heracles, who gives a grunt of approval to both you and his master as he and Lancer charge into battle. You don't know whether it was genius or complete and utter foolishness for Heracles to have picked up the smoking remains of Gudrun's Dáinsleif, but at least this way Sidonia won't be able to slink out and recover it.
Hopefully, his own absurdly high Luck will keep him from feeling the full bite of Dáinsleif's curses. They trust you. Lancer and Illya trust you. Medusa trusts you.
You'll wait for the right moment.
With absolutely no relation to King Högni, Heracles is unable to wield the most powerful boons of Dáinsleif to his advantage. That doesn't stop it from being a powerful sword capable of dealing wounds that can't be recovered from, which is exactly what you need it to be right now. Heracles goes on ahead of Lancer, charging in and joining Berserker at the monster's feet. There are no mana bursts, no massive cutting waves of black-red mana as Heracles swings the stolen sword. But it does bite, carving deep – at least, they would be deep if this monster were anywhere close to Heracles' size – wounds into the monster foot and ankle where Heracles swings it.
Lancer takes the opportunity that Heracles' attacks have bought her, and makes her attack in the same wounds which Heracles has carved. Fire would be no good, but it still comes as a surprise to see Lancer invoking her own rune of ice, spearing the monster's open wounds with man-sized icicles. They quickly melt – the monster's body is wreathed in flames, after all – but the two working in tandem does at least seem to be dealing some damage to the monster.
When the monster rears back with the spear in its left hand, you see Rider charge in with his chariot, slamming into the monster's head and knocking its blow aside. But as the monster's spear continues to come down, you see Berserker. He plants his sword firmly into the ground beside him, and reaches for the largest chunk of debris he can get his hands around. Black and red overtake the concrete hues of the debris, and Berserker brings the concrete debris around, slamming into the spear and further diverting its course away from the fight. It shatters, but no sooner has it broken than Berserker has grabbed for his sword again, and resumed the attack on the monster's feet and ankles.
Your eyes dart to your side as a ready twitch rolls off Medusa's body. "I'm good to go," she says to you. "It's all on you now, Archer."
"Don't put this all on me," you say to Medusa with a brief laugh.
"All right, let's get serious." You hold out your hand in front of yourself and concentrate, saying,
"I am the bone of my sword"
"Steel is my body and fire is my blood"
"I have created over a thousand blades"
"Unknown to Death,"
"Nor known to Life."
"Have withstood pain to create many weapons"
"Yet, those hands will never hold anything"
"So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works."
The world inside your mind blossoms outwards, enveloping all of reality in its reach. The hill of swords still stands, but where distant fires once ringed the boundary of the infinite, and the smoke-filled sky blotted out the non-existent sun, you now you see a bright blue sky, with the rising sun cresting over hills of billowing white clouds high above your head. It's the start of a new day inside the world of your creation, and you have your family to thank for each and every sunrise you are allowed to see.
You have your family to thank for getting you this far. Homura may think that you saved her, but the truth is, she's done just as much to save you. Her, and Minako, and Kirika. You could not, would not, be the person you are today without the love and support of all three of them.
So you can't afford to let them down now.
With the wave of your hand, dozens, hundreds, of swords spring up from the ground at your feet. Black Keys, Swords of Paracelsus, and as many other swords, spears, and other bladed weapons with magical effects designed to prevent regeneration among their number. You look to Medusa, and as you wave your multitude of swords off towards Sidonia's giant monster, you give her a nod of your head.
Medusa rakes her nail across her throat for a second time, and under her breath you hear her whisper
"I hope I'm not burning you out doing this, master," as her brilliant white steed bursts from the wound at her neck, before Medusa mounts it without so much as missing a beat.
"Bellerephon!"
She cries out, as she takes off on her white horse into the endless blue skies of your Reality marble. You see her join up with Rider, and together, enveloped in auras of emerald and white, their combined mounts charge into the monster, slamming into it with a tremendous amount of force, knocking it down and putting it well within range of the rest of your land-bound ally servants.
"Arondight – Overload!"
Lancer and Berserker level their weapons at the monster, and they each fire off brilliant bolts of bright blue: the freezing bite of Lancer's
Isa rune combined with the overflow of power that is Berserker's Noble Phantasm. Joining them is Boudica who, despite
missing her entire left arm – when the hell did that happen? – manages to find within herself enough strength to stand up, and blast at the monster with a bolt of mana from her sword.
"Esuprastus!"
Above the monster's head, you see Caster in his Vimana, as well as Ramesses coasting along in his solar barque. The two of them unleash their payloads from below, as blinding bolts of sunlight are lobbed at the monster from Ramesses' solar barque. Gold twinkles in your eye, and you see a massive sword, almost as long as Sidonia's monster is tall, descend on the creature, slamming into it and carving a deep wound.
"Ig-Alima!"
You, seeing where Caster is going with this, conjure up all of your willpower, all of your abilities as a sham of a mage, and all your thoughts of your family.
You can't let them down. You pull another great sword up from out of the ground, and allow Caster's conjured blade to meet its mate as your strike joins in with his.
"Sul Sagana!"
That just leaves Heracles. You and Illya look to one another, nodding your heads in unison, as sure that she's gazed upon the same idea that you and Caster have. She waves her hand out, and commands her servant "Now, Berserker-!" Heracles gives a mighty roar. He beats his chest like a gorilla and, with Dáinsleif in his hand, races up the makeshift ramp which yours and Caster's massive swords have created for him. You see the monster's eyes fix themselves upon Heracles, and it roars, the rumbling sound like an erupting volcano in your ears. Sigils of flame appear at the monster's back, and it launches them at Heracles, one after another. But Heracles keeps going, batting the barrage of flaming missiles aside with swing after swing of Dáinsleif. The monster reaches up with its free right hand, and swats at Heracles, shattering the sword-ramp and seemingly stopping Heracles in his tracks.
Heracles doesn't stop. He makes a run for the broken edge of Ig-Alima, and leaps, throwing himself at the monster with a great cry, as he brings Dáinsleif slashing down against the monster.
Black Keys supercharged with holy lightning flew from Nurse Ortensia's left hand. Sidonia's Grief shield, already stretched to its limit fending off attacks from Saber and Scáthach, is unable to stop the blades from striking her. It tries: you can see the shimmering blackness as it attempts to stretch out just enough to block the needle-like blades, but the Black Keyes tear through the Grief effortlessly as soon as they touch it. They tear through her flesh as well, in clean strokes, leaving smoking holes that Sidonia's body struggles to recover from.
In response, Sidonia opens fire on Nurse Ortensia, blasting at her with columns of fire without so much as moving a muscle. Oriko and Kanna Niko step in – or are run in, as is the case with Oriko, still be carted around on Kirika's shoulders – and the pair throw up barriers to thwart the incoming flames, before Sidonia's attention is once again torn away by strikes from Saber and Scáthach.
So far, your strategy appears to be working. Nurse Ortensia's Black Keys are only able to lock Sidonia down for a few seconds at a time, but those are still precious seconds in which Saber and Scáthach are able to deal serious, punishing damage to Sidonia. You don't know how much of it she has, but the amount of Grief their strikes have forced Sidonia to burn through in order to recover from her injuries has to have been astronomical.
Assuming she doesn't have a near-limitless supply of the stuff regardless of anything you do.
Saber and Scáthach pull back as Sidonia launches her counter-attack on them, blasting them with flames and spearing into them with spikes made from Grief. As soon as the pair have left Sidonia's effective range, anyone who can returns fire with attacks of their own. You loose arrows of ice, Tohsaka-san flings super-charged gemstones at Sidonia, and Matou Sakura blasts her with high-pressure jetstreams of water from her elemental familiar. Tohsaka-san's gemstones explode as they fly over Sidonia's head, saturating the air around her with their magically-charged particulate dust. As soon as your ice arrows and Matou Sakura's torrents of water reach the area, a brilliant explosion of blue and white envelops Sidonia, flash-freezing her in a block of ice. But as soon as you feel the temperature rising, you know you don't have much time.
"Caren-san, the shield!" Oriko cries out. "Destroy the shield while she's still frozen!"
Seeing that as her cue, Nurse Ortensia flicks her left wrist and charges up a ball of holy lightning in her left hand, paying no mind to the way the crackling arcs sear her flesh and blacken bone. As soon as your eyes lock onto the sphere of Grief– "There!" Oriko cries out –Nurse Ortensia throws the sphere of lightning like a baseball. The two collide, and the black sphere of Grief is shredded, its spoking contents sent spraying out in all directions. Again Nurse Ortensia flicks her left wrist, and Black Keys shoot out from under her sleeve into her grasp. She winces as holy lightning courses down the length of her arm, searing flesh as it imbues her weapons with their magical property. As a red-orange glow shines from within the block of ice, and the temperature grows, Nurse Ortensia flings them.
Sidonia bursts from her icy prison, and shards of half-melted ice are sprayed out like glass amidst a torrent of flames. You and Kanna Niko both hit the ground, and together raise up a wall of ice and earth, Reinforced by Oriko's barriers. The storm breaks against your combined barriers, and then all goes silent. Nurse Ortensia's Black Keys have Sidonia pinned in place – you know it won't hold for very long – and both Saber and Scáthach have their spears pointed at a cross against Sidonia's neck. Nurse Ortensia flicks her wrist again, and charges up another set of Black Keys to deal the finishing stroke while Sidonia is frozen in place. Sidonia stares at you, eyes no longer burning with the malice you saw in them only moments earlier.
They look like she's up to something.
"I yield," Sidonia says. "Gudrun is dead. My connection with Chernobog is almost spent. You've got me surrounded, and for as much as I'd like to continue lying to myself, there's too many of you. Even the dark magic of the Leviathan Seed is not unlimited, and you've got that one-" Sidonia's eyes gesture to Nurse Ortensia, "-as well. I can tell there's no way out of this, so I'm giving up. Just kill me and be done with it."
Holy lightning crackles at Nurse Ortensia's fingertips, taking the shape of something big. "With pleasure," she says. "Any last words?"
Sidonia's gaze passes over each of you, lingering just barely for a moment longer on Matou Sakura, before she stops, eyes settled on no one in particular. "One of you has got
Twardowski's Mirror, haven't you?" Sidonia asks. "Would whichever one of you has it, be willing to let me see my mother and sister one last time before I die? It's been so long, and I'd hate to have wasted my second chance at life without ever getting to see them again."
"No," Matou Sakura says. "Forget giving you what you want, you're lucky I don't just destroy this book now."
"I see," Sidonia says. Her gaze settles, and she returns her attention to Nurse Ortensia. "Well then? Get on with the execution. Hopefully it'll be less painful than the last one."
"Caren-san, wait." Oriko dismounts from her girlfriend, and you – and presumably everyone else as well – stare at her, completely incredulous to what she's saying. "Sidonia von Borchk, you are a danger and a threat to the people that I love. But I do not believe in killing, not even when the person about to be killed is truly a monster whom others believe is deserving of death," Oriko says. "Even for one such as yourself, Sidonia, I have to believe that everyone can be redeemed. Because the Lord is infinite in His mercy, even the worst of sinners can be redeemed if they should only work for it.
Oriko reaches out her hand, and when she does so, you see a strange look taking shape in Sidonia's eyes. "Please, Sidonia-san, accept my offer. You've done so much evil in your second life, but I know you have good intentions. You wouldn't desire to create a world where our kind can be safe if all you wished for was the death and suffering of others. If you repent of your sins, we can still work together to create a world where no one has to die to achieve your goals."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but damnit Oriko, shut the hell up!" Kirika's sudden, and uncharacteristic, outburst sends a shockwave rippling through anyone who knows her well enough to understand. "We're not going to redeem her, or whatever the hell you're thinking of doing! She threatened my mom, and I don't care how much I love you, I am
not going to stand by and let you talk us all into forgiving her or sparing her or whatever the hell you're thinking!"
Kirika turns away from Oriko, and glares at Sidonia, flicking her wrists and conjuring jagged black claws from her frilly cuffs. "Listen, bitch, you threatened my mom. If you think I'm just going to let you get away with that, then you're in for a
big surprise." Kirika nods her head, gesturing to Saber and Scáthach, and says "Maybe Oriko's able to talk Nurse O into sparing you, but not me. So while those two hold you down, I'm going to take these claws of mine, and fuck you to death with them. So I
really hope you like pain, 'cause what I'm gonna do to you will make losing your virginity feel like a mosquito bite in comparison."
"Then you should have gotten on with it when you had the chance."
Before either Saber or Scáthach can react– "I thought we destroyed that thing!" –several spikes made from Grief erupt in a ring around Sidonia. "Damnit Oriko! This is all your fault!" You ready arrows of ice on your bow, and you see both Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura readying their own elemental attacks to wield against Sidonia, while Nurse Ortensia prepares another charge of holy lightning.
Sidonia doesn't give them a chance. She lunges for Matou Sakura, grabbing her by the head and tackling her to the ground. "All I need is
Twardowski's Mirror!" Sidonia screams, tearing at Matou Sakura's clothes. "Give it to me!"
Matou Sakura screams, shoving Sidonia off with a kick before blasting her in the face with a high-pressure jet of water, but it's too late. You see the tome in Sidonia's grasp, its pages already opened and Sidonia's body glowing with red-orange. "Checkmate," she says. You see well over a dozen Command Seals flare to life, arranging themselves in an array at Sidonia's back, and then-
Tongues of flame lash out in every direction like radiant bursts from the sun, and Sidonia's body becomes engulfed in flames. Deep veins of Grief surge up from the ground and pour into the burning sphere that is Sidonia, and a mass of shadow and flame from off in the distance rushes to envelop the conflagration, slowly moulding it, changing its shape, until it becomes something else, something
more than Sidonia was before.
The massive Beast summoned by Sidonia –
Chernobog, she called it – now stands, looming over what remains of Tomoe-san's apartment building. Its blazing shadow flickers, and it bends down, as if contemplating you and the cluster of people huddled up around you.
"It's unfortunate things had to come this far," the booming voice of Sidonia says, emanating from the glowing mouth of the monster.
"I would have much preferred to keep things simple. But you lot had to interfere with my plans."
Black Grief drips from the monster – Sidonia? Chernobog? Which one are you even fighting at this point? – and falls to the ground, taking the shape of innumerable of Sidonia's familiars. You see just about every single one of the monsters Sidonia has employed in the past.
"Now, suffer for your insolence and die!"
[ ] Wat do?
