- Location
- USA
fate/first order derivative [FSN]
- Thread starter philopoemen
- Start date
Never change Lancer.
I love that this iteration has a running star wars thing.
Good thing he told the gang earlier.
- Location
- USA
Archer's had his fill of a lot of things, I think.
iii.8
- Location
- USA
Part III.8
> continue: iteration 29, day 8, afternoon
"We do what we came here to do," Saber says. She emerges from the plane, all signs of fear or anxiety banished from her face. "We find Shirou and Rin."
"Right, but where do we start?" Archer studies the tower. "In case you haven't noticed, this place's a little bigger than it was on Monday."
"On it," Lancer says. "Just a mo."
He hunkers down over a stone tile the plane knocked loose from the ground. With the tip of his spear, he traces a symbol that looks a bit like -- but not quite -- the letter B on the rock. The tile floats up from the ground, glowing with green light, then rockets off across the courtyard. Lancer whistles absentmindedly. The stone halts and hovers a few meters ahead of us.
"There," he says cheerfully. "We follow that, it'll bring us to Little Red, straight as ya please."
"You know rune magic, Lancer?" Saber raises her eyebrows, clearly impressed. "Then -- what about Shirou?"
"Hold yer horses, woman. I'm gettin' to it." Lancer turns to a stray chunk of airplane fuselage and repeats the process. The new rune rises from the ground and joins the other one. "There, one fer your fella. Looks like they're both in the same direction right now."
"Not bad," Archer concedes.
"Oh ho, is tha' a compliment, Archer?" Lancer grins. "And here I thought the age of miracles was dead and buri --"
He freezes and cocks his head, as if he's trying to hear something.
"... what's wrong?" I ask.
Lancer suddenly flickers, like the channel being changed on a bad TV. Disoriented, he stumbles back before catching himself with his spear.
"Lancer!" Saber reaches out to him.
"Stay back! I have this!" Lancer waves her off and seems to focus. A blue aura collects around him. "Oh no you don't," he mutters through clenched teeth. "Don't ya play with me, ya scrubber. That won't end well fer --"
He vanishes in a burst of white static.
"Heh." Archer smirks. "Loser."
Then he flickers too. Archer just looks at us and sighs. "Yeah, okay. Really should've seen that coming."
With that, he disappears as well.
Saber and I stare at each other. A few seconds pass. Nothing seems to happen to either of us.
"What the fuck?" I finally croak.
"I'm not certain." Saber glances around. "It looked like they were transported against their will. By something powerful enough to overcome their Magic Resistance, no less..."
"That sounds... not good."
"It is not." She looks at the runes, still floating in front of us. "We'd best continue while we can. Lancer and Archer couldn't have gone far. Hopefully, they'll catch up with us..."
"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Involuntary party split. That's a new one on me.
> some ol' bullshit is what that is
Preach. Nervously, I follow behind Saber as the runes lead us on.
***
> skip forward
Whoever did the renovations on this place (not that I'm not like 90% sure at this point that said person's name rhymes with blaster), I can't say I care much for their design sense. We follow the runes down long corridors of traditional Japanese paper walls and tatami mats, broken up at random intervals by Western-style brickwork and gaudy Rococo plaster. The only consistent feature seems to be these weird full-length glass panels set into the walls every few meters or so. They don't look like mirrors, and I can't see anything through them. They're just... dark, like windows into nothing.
Otherwise, stuff I recognize from the von Einzbern place is strewn about willy-nilly -- here a marble bust, there a leather-bound chair. At one point, we come across a full suit of plate armor, posed at attention inside an open closet. Saber immediately draws her sword and slashes it in half. I look at her and raise an eyebrow.
"Before it comes to life and attacks." Saber replaces the blade on her side. "I'm in no mood for games."
I nod approvingly. "Nice."
We continue onwards.
After what feels like a kilometer or more of empty hallways, we reach this vast dark chamber. It's here that the runes abruptly diverge paths. One suddenly rockets off into the blackness and vanishes, while the other heads towards a marble staircase directly opposite the room's entrance.
I glance at Saber. "So now what?"
She doesn't answer. Instead, she just stares off into the dark, her eyes narrowed.
Then she grabs me and flings us both to the side. "Down!" Two energy blasts rocket out of the dark and slam into the wall behind us. Wait... I know that sound...
Rising into a crouch, Saber draws her blade and dispels the invisible sheath. Excalibur casts a pale gold glow, barely enough to illuminate half of the room. (Damn, this place is big.) It is, however, enough to help me notice the light switch on the wall next to us. I stumble to my feet and flip it.
A handful of bare incandescent bulbs flicker to life on the ceiling. I find myself looking at what might've been the temple's main hall prior to a significant expansion. While the walls around the room are stone, the floors and roof are all hardwood, as are the thick support pillars running between them.
Rin stands on the far side of the hall from us, both arms pointed in our direction. She stares blankly through this pair of mirrored steampunkish goggles. And she... um... well...
> what
She's... wearing a maid outfit. Black and white, with the apron and the short skirt and even that frilly bonnet thingy. The dress is... um... flattering on her, let's say? Looks a bit tight, in fact...
> oh ffs
I know, I know, focus. Especially since she's firing at us again. I reflexively duck. Saber holds up her hand. This wall of moving air springs up around us. The Gandr blasts ram into it and vanish. Huh. Didn't know she could do that.
"So," I say loudly over the sound of the wind rushing around us, "she's obviously being controlled or brainwashed or something."
"Mmh." Saber's eyes scan across the room.
"How we gonna snap her out of it? Get the goggles off her, maybe?" Another salvo of blasts rebound off the wind wall.
"That's not our only problem. Look." Saber points towards the staircase.
"Shit." The other rune -- the one keyed to Shirou -- is moving on without us. I see its glow vanish around a corner further up the stairs.
"... no choice, then." Saber shifts her jaw. "You go after it. I'll handle Rin. Find Shirou if you can. If you run into any trouble, hide or return here. Got it?"
"Got it." I'm not going to even try and second-guess her. Saber knows what's she doing.
"Head for the staircase on three. I'll cover you." She changes her grip on her sword. "Three -- two --"
She drops the wall. I run for it. A gem comes hurdling at us. Saber bats it away into the wall, where it goes off like a grenade, then intercepts two more blasts headed in my direction.
I jump up the first few stairs, then risk one last glance back. I see Saber rush across the room at Rin, who frigging cartwheels out of the way, that short skirt whipping around her thighs...
... damn.
> bluh
> since when do you have a meido fetish anyway
I don't. Or, well... at least, I didn't up until now. Learning new things about myself, I guess?
> facepalm.gif
Anyway, right, Shirou. I sprint up the stairs two at a time.
***
> skip forward
Looks like the staircase finally leads up into the tower. I find myself going up floor after floor. The decor up here seems pretty much unchanged from how things looked inside the von Einzbern place -- with the exception of those dark glass panes on the walls that I mentioned before. They're a lot thicker up here too, spaced just a few centimeters apart from each other.
The rune is moving way too goddamn fast. I can barely keep it in sight, and I'm moving as fast as I can. I feel my lungs scream for mercy as I reach the top of the latest staircase, just in time to see the green glow shoot down another short hallway and whip around a corner.
Then I freeze in place, because I hear a voice nearby. Coming from the same direction the rune went.
What do I do? Do I run back and tell Saber, or... ?
> hm
> at least see who it is first maybe
... yeah. Yeah, okay. I carefully creep my way down the hall. As I get closer, I make out what the voice is saying:
"He loves me... he loves me not... he loves me... he loves me not..."
I reach the end and peek around the corner.
I find myself looking into a large, marble-floored room, the walls lined with dark glass. At the center of the room, there's a crystal bench set on a raised dais. A figure dressed in a white robe and hood sits on top of it, next to a pile of assorted flowers. Delicate fingers pick the petals off of an orange lily, one by one.
"He loves me... he loves me not... he loves me." The last petal drifts away through the air. She makes a fart sound with her mouth. "I need better flowers...
"Oh, it's you," Caster says, without raising or turning her head. "You're the funny, talky one."
So much for that Hide check. Run now?
> is there a point
> she can just stop you with those invisible thread things if she wants
Fuck, you're right. And besides... if she's actually willing to talk some... this may be our one chance to get some damn answers here.
I step out from behind the corner, my hands raised. "Uh, yep, that's me. The funny, talky, completely harmless one."
She turns and smiles. Maybe it's just the light, but Caster's skin looks a lot paler than it did on Monday. Her hair, by contrast, is way darker, not to mention sort of frazzled and sticking up in places. And her eyes...
Her eyes are pure black. Sclera, iris, everything. Like looking into midnight.
> shit
> she's gone full sadako
Oh, so now you want to run?! I swallow and try to keep a straight face. "You've... um... changed up your look, I see."
"Uh-huh."
"Seems like you've changed up a lot of things lately." I hesitantly take a step or two into the room.
"Mmh." She rocks back and forth in place.
"Any particular reason why?" I don't see any sign of the rune in here. There's two other exits, though. Did it move on without me?
"I dunno." She shrugs. "It's mostly 'cuz of my aunt, I guess."
I blink. "Your... aunt?"
"Uh-huh." Caster nods. "I just remembered a bunch of stuff she told me a really long time ago. 'Your secrets are your power, never reveal them.' 'Only the weak are not lonely.' 'Sailors are all pigs, but they make the best lovers.'
"It all just seems so silly now, you know? Especially the secrets part. It's like... you ever notice how much time adults spend lying to each other? Lying and making excuses an' holding stuff back. And what's the point? I mean, why even be a grown-up if all you're gonna do is hide from other people?...
"So..." She waves her hands vaguely at our surroundings. "No more hiding. No more secrets."
"Um, yeah," I cautiously agree. "Mission definitely accomplished there, I'd say."
"And the other part's the stories." She twists around and faces me, cross-legged on top of the bench. "They always get it wrong, you know?"
"Who does?"
"People. Poets. Playwriters." She shakes her head. "They say I burned kids, but I didn't. I'm the one who burned -- or they kept trying to burn me, anyway. And the other thing -- they never let me have a happy ending! They'll make up one for everyone else, but not for me!"
"That sucks."
"I know! But that's just how it is." She picks up a discarded flower stem and sullenly twirls it back and forth in her fingers. "No happy endings for big brother. No happy endings for Lily..."
I don't have any idea how to respond to that. Or to any of this, really. "Um..."
"But those are just the rules, y'know? Witches don't get happy endings." She tosses the stem away with a sigh. "And I wasn't one. I didn't never want to be one. But they called me it so many times, I thought I better figure out how to be good at it."
She tilts her head at a puzzled angle. "But then I thought, what do witches even do? I didn't know. Poison princesses? Live in the woods? Fly on broomsticks!" She snaps her fingers. "But I couldn't find one. So I made the house fly instead. And then I made it into a castle 'cause I wanted one."
She leans towards me conspiratorially and whispers, as if sharing a huge secret: "I wanted it to be an ice cream castle, too. But the walls kept melting."
"Oh." I blink. "I'm... sorry to hear that. That's disappointing."
"I know!" She sits back and grins happily. "Bored. I'm gonna watch teevee now."
Caster gets up and skips across the room, humming under her breath. Okay... I don't need to talk about how wrong all this feels, right? It's so obvious it's painful.
> i dunno
> she actually seems kinda sweet
That's just it, though! The woman I talked to on Monday? She wasn't sweet. At all!
Caster goes over to an object in the room I didn't notice before -- an old-fashioned CRT television sitting on a wooden cart against the wall. The rabbit ears are all bent, the power cord's been shredded, and going by the open hole in the side, it looks like most of its guts have been ripped out. I start to say, "I don't know if --"
She twists the dial. Black-and-white static explodes onto the screen. Shows what I know, I guess.
Caster sits down cross-legged on the floor in front of the screen. "I hate teevee," she explains cheerfully. "Especially Disney. The monks had a bunch on tape. I've watched them all twice. Except Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Those I've watched three times."
"Impressive." I wander over and stand a few paces behind her.
She holds up what I'm fairly certain is a pocket calculator and changes the channel. I watch as she flips through a few emergency broadcasts.
> btw remember what brought you here
What, you mean, Shirou? I know, I know...
> well yeah that
> but also
> remember the club
The club?... oh. OH. Shit, you're right. If she's really serious about the whole not-keeping-secrets thing...
I hesitate, then go over and crouch down next to her. "Hey, um... can I ask you something?"
"Huh?" Caster looks up at me, slack-jawed.
"So... let's say you had to fight this guy who's a really strong teleporter," I say. "He can, like, open up portals everywhere, and store stuff inside of them, and launch this huge amount of weapons everywhere --"
"The Gate of Babylon," she rattles off as if reading from a book. "Noble Phantasm of Gilgameš Shūtur-eli-sharrī, the King of Heroes."
"... yeah, kinda like that." I shift my jaw. "So how would you stop him? Is there, like, a particular spell you could use to shut him down or something?"
"Nah."
I blink. "Huh?"
"Can't do it." Caster shrugs. "It's a work of the ancient gods, sealed at the dawn of time and baked in the heat of the first stars. Even Zeus couldn'ta messed with that. So I really can't."
... that makes no sense. Is she lying? Did she notice something in the club? Some kind of hack or weakness or --
"... but I could maybe make him think I can. For a little while, anyway."
That throws me. "W-what do you mean?"
"Lôdix agnoíain, the blanket of ignorance." Caster sticks out her tongue a little as she thinks. "It's like... every time he opens a portal, I put up an illusion that hides it. Wouldn't last too long. He'd know as soon as he tried teleporting himself or, like, someone in front of him." She shrugs again. "I dunno. Something like that, I guess. 'The essence of all magic is illusion.' That's another thing auntie said."
... are you fucking kidding me.
So... that entire time Caster was strutting through Gilgamesh's club like she owned the place... about to play steal-yo-girl right from under his damn nose... she was bluffing?!?
> sounds that way
... okay. Not gonna pretend I'm not mad we came all this way just to find out about a literal magic trick... but that's still kind of awesome.
> yup
"... cool. Thanks." I cough and stand back up, mostly just to hide my frustration. She turns back to the TV.
That's when I finally catch sight of the rune. The chunk of metal inscribed with the not-actually-a-B lies dead on the ground beneath the TV cart. Does that mean Shirou's in here somewhere? I glance around the room in what hopefully seems like a casual manner.
Sound blares out of the television. I look at the screen and see:
Lancer slams into the wall painfully with a loud grunt. He's bleeding from a large slash on his left shoulder. Next to him, Archer wheels and throws one of his knives. There's a flash, and the blade clatters uselessly against the far wall.
Somewhere, an unfamiliar voice giggles. It's not a pleasant sound.
Cut to a wide shot. Lancer and Archer stand inside of a circular room, stone-walled with no windows. The only visible exit is the temple gate, positioned against the far wall from them, its doors bound in thick chains.
Lancer stumbles upright. "Bloody phantom...," he mumbles.
"You," Archer growls, his narrowed eyes scanning the room. "You're not just shifting back and forth into your spiritual form. How are you doing that?"
"Oh-ho-ho, that?!" the voice roars. "That's SIMPLE! That's so very very VERY fuckin' simple!"
A man appears out of thin air on top of the temple gate, a wide maniac grin on his scarred face. The only clothing he wears is a ragged pair of hemp hakama trousers. His unkempt hair runs down to his waist. The tattoos on his bare chest seem to shift and morph with the changing light. He sports a pair of handaxes tied to either hip, and carries a strange hooked pike over one shoulder.
(-- hold on, I've seen that weapon before. What was it called, the thing firemen used to use to pull down roofs... a kama-yari, I think? Yeah. That seems right.)
"You see, I," he says, twirling the kama-yari over his head, "do not exist! Maybe existed? Could've existed. Heh, who cares, who cares, not me.
"And what was I?" he continues with a leer. "A bandit? A beggar? A farmer who took the wrong path home one night? Who gives a shit? Because there's one constant, one god, one thing that's always the same..."
He vanishes and reappears in an eyeblink, flying towards Archer with an axe in each hand, a look of crazed euphoria on his face.
"SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!"
Yikes. Okay, then. I glance at Caster. "Who's that?"
"Assassin." She plays with her lip indifferently.
... this is the super-honorable swordsman Saber mentioned? Can't say I'm seeing it.
"He doesn't even need that gate around anymore, you know that?" Caster remarks as Assassin and Archer exchange blows. "He just thinks it looks cool."
"Wawawawait." Assassin flash-steps back over to the gate. "I just realized something. This is too fair. I think I hate that. I dislike it. I don't care. Fix it anyway though, fix it."
He bangs his pike a few times into the door. "HEY, FATASS! GET THE HELL OUT HERE, YOU LAZY BASTARD! WE GOT THINGS TO CUT!"
There's a rumble. Something strikes the back of the gate's door with the force of an eight-wheel truck.
"Well." Lancer brandishes his spear, a weary smile on his face. "'Bout time tings finally got interesting here." Archer's face tightens as another pair of knives materialize in his hands.
The next blow shatters the chains and throws the gate open. The thing that charges out on all fours looks less like a man and more like a mass of exposed muscle, lacking eyes and ears and even a nose. It roars out a senseless challenge as it blindly dashes forward, an uncontrolled whirlwind of pure strength...
"Wait -- is that Berserker?!" I look at Caster in disbelief. "I thought you hated him!"
"Mmm... maybe a little, I guess?" She shrugs. "Mostly, I just realized I kinda missed having him around." She watches as Assassin rides on Berserker's back, gleefully swinging the kama-yari around like a polo player on meth. "So they're having fun. That's good." She yawns and changes the channel.
"Hey...," I say weakly. How did she get Berserker working for her? And what the hell happened to him?
Caster squeals and bolts upright. "Eeeeeeeee this is it this is it! I knew it was here somewhere!" She stares into the screen, completely enraptured.
Her head blocks my view of the TV. I step to the side and see:
Rin aims a palm strike at Saber's face, the Magic Circuits on her arm at full power. The Servant blocks the blow and counters with a knee to the stomach. Rin dodges and, falling back a pace or two, fires a Gandr blast.
(The room around them is a complete mess at this point. The walls are pockmarked with craters and fist-prints. Most of the support columns have been shattered or cleaved into pieces. Clearly, this has been going on for quite some time.)
Saber knocks the blast away with her sword and charges, slicing down at Rin's legs. The girl leaps over the blade and backflips over her opponent, intending to land on the Servant's blind side --
-- but Saber's ready for that, too. In a single motion, she sidesteps and slashes up at the back of Rin's head, her aim so precise she doesn't even break the skin. She cuts only what she targets: the leather strap holding the mirrored goggles on.
Rin lands and stumbles. The goggles go flying. Saber drops the sword and cups the girl's face with both hands. "RIN!"
The mage freezes in place. Without the goggles, her eyes are visible. They're completely black, iris and all, containing no hint of light or emotion.
"I know you," Saber growls, staring Rin straight in the eye with an almost magnetic intensity. "You're stronger than this. Whatever this curse is, you can beat it. I know you can. The heir of the Tohsaka family is no one's puppet."
(Caster giggles and rocks back and forth, blushing furiously.)
Saber pauses. Her face softens. "... you've spent your whole life living in your father's shadow, haven't you? Trying to be as cold and terrible as he taught you to be. You still haven't realized... you're already better than Tokiomi ever was. And not in spite of that heart you work so hard to hide. Because of it."
(I shift my feet uncomfortably. Um. Should... I be watching this?
> probably not
> too late now tho
Yeah, I figured...)
Rin's hands fall limply to her sides.
"Fight it, Rin..." Saber strokes her cheek affectionately with her thumb. "Remember who you are and fight. Remember your pride. Remember your fire. Come back to us. Come back to me." An odd expression, somewhere between surprise and consternation, flickers across her face before she regains her composure.
(Okay, I definitely should not be watching this.)
Rin's lips move, but no sound comes out.
"What?" Saber leans her ear in. "Tell me what you need."
"... run," Rin whispers. Her jaw drops open. A pitch-black substance floods out of her mouth and down her chin.
Paper-thin tendrils explode out of ground and envelop them. The wooden floor beneath their feet shatters and collapses, tipping them both into what lies beneath -- the monastery lake.
And all at once, I get it. Including something really, incredibly, insanely obvious I should have spotted from a million miles away. Rider's message -- she didn't mean 景 or "vista" or "scene" or any of that.
She was trying to write 影. "Shadow."
> continue: iteration 29, day 8, afternoon
"We do what we came here to do," Saber says. She emerges from the plane, all signs of fear or anxiety banished from her face. "We find Shirou and Rin."
"Right, but where do we start?" Archer studies the tower. "In case you haven't noticed, this place's a little bigger than it was on Monday."
"On it," Lancer says. "Just a mo."
He hunkers down over a stone tile the plane knocked loose from the ground. With the tip of his spear, he traces a symbol that looks a bit like -- but not quite -- the letter B on the rock. The tile floats up from the ground, glowing with green light, then rockets off across the courtyard. Lancer whistles absentmindedly. The stone halts and hovers a few meters ahead of us.
"There," he says cheerfully. "We follow that, it'll bring us to Little Red, straight as ya please."
"You know rune magic, Lancer?" Saber raises her eyebrows, clearly impressed. "Then -- what about Shirou?"
"Hold yer horses, woman. I'm gettin' to it." Lancer turns to a stray chunk of airplane fuselage and repeats the process. The new rune rises from the ground and joins the other one. "There, one fer your fella. Looks like they're both in the same direction right now."
"Not bad," Archer concedes.
"Oh ho, is tha' a compliment, Archer?" Lancer grins. "And here I thought the age of miracles was dead and buri --"
He freezes and cocks his head, as if he's trying to hear something.
"... what's wrong?" I ask.
Lancer suddenly flickers, like the channel being changed on a bad TV. Disoriented, he stumbles back before catching himself with his spear.
"Lancer!" Saber reaches out to him.
"Stay back! I have this!" Lancer waves her off and seems to focus. A blue aura collects around him. "Oh no you don't," he mutters through clenched teeth. "Don't ya play with me, ya scrubber. That won't end well fer --"
He vanishes in a burst of white static.
"Heh." Archer smirks. "Loser."
Then he flickers too. Archer just looks at us and sighs. "Yeah, okay. Really should've seen that coming."
With that, he disappears as well.
Saber and I stare at each other. A few seconds pass. Nothing seems to happen to either of us.
"What the fuck?" I finally croak.
"I'm not certain." Saber glances around. "It looked like they were transported against their will. By something powerful enough to overcome their Magic Resistance, no less..."
"That sounds... not good."
"It is not." She looks at the runes, still floating in front of us. "We'd best continue while we can. Lancer and Archer couldn't have gone far. Hopefully, they'll catch up with us..."
"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Involuntary party split. That's a new one on me.
> some ol' bullshit is what that is
Preach. Nervously, I follow behind Saber as the runes lead us on.
***
> skip forward
Whoever did the renovations on this place (not that I'm not like 90% sure at this point that said person's name rhymes with blaster), I can't say I care much for their design sense. We follow the runes down long corridors of traditional Japanese paper walls and tatami mats, broken up at random intervals by Western-style brickwork and gaudy Rococo plaster. The only consistent feature seems to be these weird full-length glass panels set into the walls every few meters or so. They don't look like mirrors, and I can't see anything through them. They're just... dark, like windows into nothing.
Otherwise, stuff I recognize from the von Einzbern place is strewn about willy-nilly -- here a marble bust, there a leather-bound chair. At one point, we come across a full suit of plate armor, posed at attention inside an open closet. Saber immediately draws her sword and slashes it in half. I look at her and raise an eyebrow.
"Before it comes to life and attacks." Saber replaces the blade on her side. "I'm in no mood for games."
I nod approvingly. "Nice."
We continue onwards.
After what feels like a kilometer or more of empty hallways, we reach this vast dark chamber. It's here that the runes abruptly diverge paths. One suddenly rockets off into the blackness and vanishes, while the other heads towards a marble staircase directly opposite the room's entrance.
I glance at Saber. "So now what?"
She doesn't answer. Instead, she just stares off into the dark, her eyes narrowed.
Then she grabs me and flings us both to the side. "Down!" Two energy blasts rocket out of the dark and slam into the wall behind us. Wait... I know that sound...
Rising into a crouch, Saber draws her blade and dispels the invisible sheath. Excalibur casts a pale gold glow, barely enough to illuminate half of the room. (Damn, this place is big.) It is, however, enough to help me notice the light switch on the wall next to us. I stumble to my feet and flip it.
A handful of bare incandescent bulbs flicker to life on the ceiling. I find myself looking at what might've been the temple's main hall prior to a significant expansion. While the walls around the room are stone, the floors and roof are all hardwood, as are the thick support pillars running between them.
Rin stands on the far side of the hall from us, both arms pointed in our direction. She stares blankly through this pair of mirrored steampunkish goggles. And she... um... well...
> what
She's... wearing a maid outfit. Black and white, with the apron and the short skirt and even that frilly bonnet thingy. The dress is... um... flattering on her, let's say? Looks a bit tight, in fact...
> oh ffs
I know, I know, focus. Especially since she's firing at us again. I reflexively duck. Saber holds up her hand. This wall of moving air springs up around us. The Gandr blasts ram into it and vanish. Huh. Didn't know she could do that.
"So," I say loudly over the sound of the wind rushing around us, "she's obviously being controlled or brainwashed or something."
"Mmh." Saber's eyes scan across the room.
"How we gonna snap her out of it? Get the goggles off her, maybe?" Another salvo of blasts rebound off the wind wall.
"That's not our only problem. Look." Saber points towards the staircase.
"Shit." The other rune -- the one keyed to Shirou -- is moving on without us. I see its glow vanish around a corner further up the stairs.
"... no choice, then." Saber shifts her jaw. "You go after it. I'll handle Rin. Find Shirou if you can. If you run into any trouble, hide or return here. Got it?"
"Got it." I'm not going to even try and second-guess her. Saber knows what's she doing.
"Head for the staircase on three. I'll cover you." She changes her grip on her sword. "Three -- two --"
She drops the wall. I run for it. A gem comes hurdling at us. Saber bats it away into the wall, where it goes off like a grenade, then intercepts two more blasts headed in my direction.
I jump up the first few stairs, then risk one last glance back. I see Saber rush across the room at Rin, who frigging cartwheels out of the way, that short skirt whipping around her thighs...
... damn.
> bluh
> since when do you have a meido fetish anyway
I don't. Or, well... at least, I didn't up until now. Learning new things about myself, I guess?
> facepalm.gif
Anyway, right, Shirou. I sprint up the stairs two at a time.
***
> skip forward
Looks like the staircase finally leads up into the tower. I find myself going up floor after floor. The decor up here seems pretty much unchanged from how things looked inside the von Einzbern place -- with the exception of those dark glass panes on the walls that I mentioned before. They're a lot thicker up here too, spaced just a few centimeters apart from each other.
The rune is moving way too goddamn fast. I can barely keep it in sight, and I'm moving as fast as I can. I feel my lungs scream for mercy as I reach the top of the latest staircase, just in time to see the green glow shoot down another short hallway and whip around a corner.
Then I freeze in place, because I hear a voice nearby. Coming from the same direction the rune went.
What do I do? Do I run back and tell Saber, or... ?
> hm
> at least see who it is first maybe
... yeah. Yeah, okay. I carefully creep my way down the hall. As I get closer, I make out what the voice is saying:
"He loves me... he loves me not... he loves me... he loves me not..."
I reach the end and peek around the corner.
I find myself looking into a large, marble-floored room, the walls lined with dark glass. At the center of the room, there's a crystal bench set on a raised dais. A figure dressed in a white robe and hood sits on top of it, next to a pile of assorted flowers. Delicate fingers pick the petals off of an orange lily, one by one.
"He loves me... he loves me not... he loves me." The last petal drifts away through the air. She makes a fart sound with her mouth. "I need better flowers...
"Oh, it's you," Caster says, without raising or turning her head. "You're the funny, talky one."
So much for that Hide check. Run now?
> is there a point
> she can just stop you with those invisible thread things if she wants
Fuck, you're right. And besides... if she's actually willing to talk some... this may be our one chance to get some damn answers here.
I step out from behind the corner, my hands raised. "Uh, yep, that's me. The funny, talky, completely harmless one."
She turns and smiles. Maybe it's just the light, but Caster's skin looks a lot paler than it did on Monday. Her hair, by contrast, is way darker, not to mention sort of frazzled and sticking up in places. And her eyes...
Her eyes are pure black. Sclera, iris, everything. Like looking into midnight.
> shit
> she's gone full sadako
Oh, so now you want to run?! I swallow and try to keep a straight face. "You've... um... changed up your look, I see."
"Uh-huh."
"Seems like you've changed up a lot of things lately." I hesitantly take a step or two into the room.
"Mmh." She rocks back and forth in place.
"Any particular reason why?" I don't see any sign of the rune in here. There's two other exits, though. Did it move on without me?
"I dunno." She shrugs. "It's mostly 'cuz of my aunt, I guess."
I blink. "Your... aunt?"
"Uh-huh." Caster nods. "I just remembered a bunch of stuff she told me a really long time ago. 'Your secrets are your power, never reveal them.' 'Only the weak are not lonely.' 'Sailors are all pigs, but they make the best lovers.'
"It all just seems so silly now, you know? Especially the secrets part. It's like... you ever notice how much time adults spend lying to each other? Lying and making excuses an' holding stuff back. And what's the point? I mean, why even be a grown-up if all you're gonna do is hide from other people?...
"So..." She waves her hands vaguely at our surroundings. "No more hiding. No more secrets."
"Um, yeah," I cautiously agree. "Mission definitely accomplished there, I'd say."
"And the other part's the stories." She twists around and faces me, cross-legged on top of the bench. "They always get it wrong, you know?"
"Who does?"
"People. Poets. Playwriters." She shakes her head. "They say I burned kids, but I didn't. I'm the one who burned -- or they kept trying to burn me, anyway. And the other thing -- they never let me have a happy ending! They'll make up one for everyone else, but not for me!"
"That sucks."
"I know! But that's just how it is." She picks up a discarded flower stem and sullenly twirls it back and forth in her fingers. "No happy endings for big brother. No happy endings for Lily..."
I don't have any idea how to respond to that. Or to any of this, really. "Um..."
"But those are just the rules, y'know? Witches don't get happy endings." She tosses the stem away with a sigh. "And I wasn't one. I didn't never want to be one. But they called me it so many times, I thought I better figure out how to be good at it."
She tilts her head at a puzzled angle. "But then I thought, what do witches even do? I didn't know. Poison princesses? Live in the woods? Fly on broomsticks!" She snaps her fingers. "But I couldn't find one. So I made the house fly instead. And then I made it into a castle 'cause I wanted one."
She leans towards me conspiratorially and whispers, as if sharing a huge secret: "I wanted it to be an ice cream castle, too. But the walls kept melting."
"Oh." I blink. "I'm... sorry to hear that. That's disappointing."
"I know!" She sits back and grins happily. "Bored. I'm gonna watch teevee now."
Caster gets up and skips across the room, humming under her breath. Okay... I don't need to talk about how wrong all this feels, right? It's so obvious it's painful.
> i dunno
> she actually seems kinda sweet
That's just it, though! The woman I talked to on Monday? She wasn't sweet. At all!
Caster goes over to an object in the room I didn't notice before -- an old-fashioned CRT television sitting on a wooden cart against the wall. The rabbit ears are all bent, the power cord's been shredded, and going by the open hole in the side, it looks like most of its guts have been ripped out. I start to say, "I don't know if --"
She twists the dial. Black-and-white static explodes onto the screen. Shows what I know, I guess.
Caster sits down cross-legged on the floor in front of the screen. "I hate teevee," she explains cheerfully. "Especially Disney. The monks had a bunch on tape. I've watched them all twice. Except Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Those I've watched three times."
"Impressive." I wander over and stand a few paces behind her.
She holds up what I'm fairly certain is a pocket calculator and changes the channel. I watch as she flips through a few emergency broadcasts.
> btw remember what brought you here
What, you mean, Shirou? I know, I know...
> well yeah that
> but also
> remember the club
The club?... oh. OH. Shit, you're right. If she's really serious about the whole not-keeping-secrets thing...
I hesitate, then go over and crouch down next to her. "Hey, um... can I ask you something?"
"Huh?" Caster looks up at me, slack-jawed.
"So... let's say you had to fight this guy who's a really strong teleporter," I say. "He can, like, open up portals everywhere, and store stuff inside of them, and launch this huge amount of weapons everywhere --"
"The Gate of Babylon," she rattles off as if reading from a book. "Noble Phantasm of Gilgameš Shūtur-eli-sharrī, the King of Heroes."
"... yeah, kinda like that." I shift my jaw. "So how would you stop him? Is there, like, a particular spell you could use to shut him down or something?"
"Nah."
I blink. "Huh?"
"Can't do it." Caster shrugs. "It's a work of the ancient gods, sealed at the dawn of time and baked in the heat of the first stars. Even Zeus couldn'ta messed with that. So I really can't."
... that makes no sense. Is she lying? Did she notice something in the club? Some kind of hack or weakness or --
"... but I could maybe make him think I can. For a little while, anyway."
That throws me. "W-what do you mean?"
"Lôdix agnoíain, the blanket of ignorance." Caster sticks out her tongue a little as she thinks. "It's like... every time he opens a portal, I put up an illusion that hides it. Wouldn't last too long. He'd know as soon as he tried teleporting himself or, like, someone in front of him." She shrugs again. "I dunno. Something like that, I guess. 'The essence of all magic is illusion.' That's another thing auntie said."
... are you fucking kidding me.
So... that entire time Caster was strutting through Gilgamesh's club like she owned the place... about to play steal-yo-girl right from under his damn nose... she was bluffing?!?
> sounds that way
... okay. Not gonna pretend I'm not mad we came all this way just to find out about a literal magic trick... but that's still kind of awesome.
> yup
"... cool. Thanks." I cough and stand back up, mostly just to hide my frustration. She turns back to the TV.
That's when I finally catch sight of the rune. The chunk of metal inscribed with the not-actually-a-B lies dead on the ground beneath the TV cart. Does that mean Shirou's in here somewhere? I glance around the room in what hopefully seems like a casual manner.
Sound blares out of the television. I look at the screen and see:
Lancer slams into the wall painfully with a loud grunt. He's bleeding from a large slash on his left shoulder. Next to him, Archer wheels and throws one of his knives. There's a flash, and the blade clatters uselessly against the far wall.
Somewhere, an unfamiliar voice giggles. It's not a pleasant sound.
Cut to a wide shot. Lancer and Archer stand inside of a circular room, stone-walled with no windows. The only visible exit is the temple gate, positioned against the far wall from them, its doors bound in thick chains.
Lancer stumbles upright. "Bloody phantom...," he mumbles.
"You," Archer growls, his narrowed eyes scanning the room. "You're not just shifting back and forth into your spiritual form. How are you doing that?"
"Oh-ho-ho, that?!" the voice roars. "That's SIMPLE! That's so very very VERY fuckin' simple!"
A man appears out of thin air on top of the temple gate, a wide maniac grin on his scarred face. The only clothing he wears is a ragged pair of hemp hakama trousers. His unkempt hair runs down to his waist. The tattoos on his bare chest seem to shift and morph with the changing light. He sports a pair of handaxes tied to either hip, and carries a strange hooked pike over one shoulder.
(-- hold on, I've seen that weapon before. What was it called, the thing firemen used to use to pull down roofs... a kama-yari, I think? Yeah. That seems right.)
"You see, I," he says, twirling the kama-yari over his head, "do not exist! Maybe existed? Could've existed. Heh, who cares, who cares, not me.
"And what was I?" he continues with a leer. "A bandit? A beggar? A farmer who took the wrong path home one night? Who gives a shit? Because there's one constant, one god, one thing that's always the same..."
He vanishes and reappears in an eyeblink, flying towards Archer with an axe in each hand, a look of crazed euphoria on his face.
"SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!"
Yikes. Okay, then. I glance at Caster. "Who's that?"
"Assassin." She plays with her lip indifferently.
... this is the super-honorable swordsman Saber mentioned? Can't say I'm seeing it.
"He doesn't even need that gate around anymore, you know that?" Caster remarks as Assassin and Archer exchange blows. "He just thinks it looks cool."
"Wawawawait." Assassin flash-steps back over to the gate. "I just realized something. This is too fair. I think I hate that. I dislike it. I don't care. Fix it anyway though, fix it."
He bangs his pike a few times into the door. "HEY, FATASS! GET THE HELL OUT HERE, YOU LAZY BASTARD! WE GOT THINGS TO CUT!"
There's a rumble. Something strikes the back of the gate's door with the force of an eight-wheel truck.
"Well." Lancer brandishes his spear, a weary smile on his face. "'Bout time tings finally got interesting here." Archer's face tightens as another pair of knives materialize in his hands.
The next blow shatters the chains and throws the gate open. The thing that charges out on all fours looks less like a man and more like a mass of exposed muscle, lacking eyes and ears and even a nose. It roars out a senseless challenge as it blindly dashes forward, an uncontrolled whirlwind of pure strength...
"Wait -- is that Berserker?!" I look at Caster in disbelief. "I thought you hated him!"
"Mmm... maybe a little, I guess?" She shrugs. "Mostly, I just realized I kinda missed having him around." She watches as Assassin rides on Berserker's back, gleefully swinging the kama-yari around like a polo player on meth. "So they're having fun. That's good." She yawns and changes the channel.
"Hey...," I say weakly. How did she get Berserker working for her? And what the hell happened to him?
Caster squeals and bolts upright. "Eeeeeeeee this is it this is it! I knew it was here somewhere!" She stares into the screen, completely enraptured.
Her head blocks my view of the TV. I step to the side and see:
Rin aims a palm strike at Saber's face, the Magic Circuits on her arm at full power. The Servant blocks the blow and counters with a knee to the stomach. Rin dodges and, falling back a pace or two, fires a Gandr blast.
(The room around them is a complete mess at this point. The walls are pockmarked with craters and fist-prints. Most of the support columns have been shattered or cleaved into pieces. Clearly, this has been going on for quite some time.)
Saber knocks the blast away with her sword and charges, slicing down at Rin's legs. The girl leaps over the blade and backflips over her opponent, intending to land on the Servant's blind side --
-- but Saber's ready for that, too. In a single motion, she sidesteps and slashes up at the back of Rin's head, her aim so precise she doesn't even break the skin. She cuts only what she targets: the leather strap holding the mirrored goggles on.
Rin lands and stumbles. The goggles go flying. Saber drops the sword and cups the girl's face with both hands. "RIN!"
The mage freezes in place. Without the goggles, her eyes are visible. They're completely black, iris and all, containing no hint of light or emotion.
"I know you," Saber growls, staring Rin straight in the eye with an almost magnetic intensity. "You're stronger than this. Whatever this curse is, you can beat it. I know you can. The heir of the Tohsaka family is no one's puppet."
(Caster giggles and rocks back and forth, blushing furiously.)
Saber pauses. Her face softens. "... you've spent your whole life living in your father's shadow, haven't you? Trying to be as cold and terrible as he taught you to be. You still haven't realized... you're already better than Tokiomi ever was. And not in spite of that heart you work so hard to hide. Because of it."
(I shift my feet uncomfortably. Um. Should... I be watching this?
> probably not
> too late now tho
Yeah, I figured...)
Rin's hands fall limply to her sides.
"Fight it, Rin..." Saber strokes her cheek affectionately with her thumb. "Remember who you are and fight. Remember your pride. Remember your fire. Come back to us. Come back to me." An odd expression, somewhere between surprise and consternation, flickers across her face before she regains her composure.
(Okay, I definitely should not be watching this.)
Rin's lips move, but no sound comes out.
"What?" Saber leans her ear in. "Tell me what you need."
"... run," Rin whispers. Her jaw drops open. A pitch-black substance floods out of her mouth and down her chin.
Paper-thin tendrils explode out of ground and envelop them. The wooden floor beneath their feet shatters and collapses, tipping them both into what lies beneath -- the monastery lake.
And all at once, I get it. Including something really, incredibly, insanely obvious I should have spotted from a million miles away. Rider's message -- she didn't mean 景 or "vista" or "scene" or any of that.
She was trying to write 影. "Shadow."
- Location
- Out there
I definitely did not see that coming.
It makes horrifying amounts of sense though, and I'm really loving your take on Kojiro Alter, as well as Medea Alter. I suppose messing with the thing in the lake backfired. Nice to see her refer to sweet old aunt Circe, as well as her own time with the Argonauts
Really digging Lancer and Archers respective reactions to their arena fights and Kojiro riding Herk is pretty great as well
Dreading what comes next, and I can't wait for it.
- Location
- USA
Good catch. I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up on that.
Sailors and pigs, there's only one Greek witch connected to both!
Is it Saber making that expression? Or Rin? Surprised to see Rin so far down the saber route in this iteration
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- Location
- USA
Saber. And you're not as surprised as she is.
- Location
- Laguna,Phillipines
Wow this story is fucking amazing. The summary does not do it justice, I thought this would be just another generic oc/si fic but you've managed to make it work out as great combination of light hearted humor and action.
Honestly you might want to change the summary or title because I thought this was a grand order fic at first.
Honestly you might want to change the summary or title because I thought this was a grand order fic at first.
- Location
- USA
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I have to say I'm really digging how you've expanded upon each Servant's abilities beyond what we're shown in the anime and games. Theres really a whole bunch of things Heroic Spirits can do and the time loop format is perfect for showing the 'paths not taken' and things Tom missed in one iteration.
Plus the way you manage to include Japanese knowledge feels very natural, which is a rarity among English fanfics (to be fair, it's hard to write cultural knowledge when you're not actually of that culture, which I'm assuming most fanfic writers are not). Even if some references go completely over my head it's fun to read about them anyway, plus Tom has a great inner voice that manages to make exposition interesting, so definitely kudos to you!
Plus the way you manage to include Japanese knowledge feels very natural, which is a rarity among English fanfics (to be fair, it's hard to write cultural knowledge when you're not actually of that culture, which I'm assuming most fanfic writers are not). Even if some references go completely over my head it's fun to read about them anyway, plus Tom has a great inner voice that manages to make exposition interesting, so definitely kudos to you!
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I binge-read this fic after discovering it today, and you made it worth my while. Very engaging all the way through. Tom's stream-of-consciousness narration works well. It's a bit confusing in places, but I can actually read and understand it, so it's far superior to Joyce.
iii.9
- Location
- USA
Part III.9
> continue: iteration 29, day 8, afternoon
Everything clicks together in my head all at once. I stand there frozen as Caster -- or at least someone who looks like her -- squeals and starts rolling around on the floor gleefully. "I got her I got her I got her eeeeeeeeeee!"
On the television screen, the entire floor of the main hall collapses into the lake as the shadow's tendrils rip the woodwork into shreds. There's a bright flash of light, and the screen cuts out to static. It was a trap. The entire room, Rin included.
I turn and stare at the madwoman as she lies giggling on the floor. "You... I told you about the shadow in the lake on Monday. You went to go find it, didn't you?"
She snickers and sits up. "Dumb Lilyhead. Kept wondering why her puppets didn't come back. So she went to check herself."
"It ate you and Assassin."
She nods. "Went inside, went inside. Talked to him. After that, everything just made so much more sense."
> him?
On it. "Him?" I ask -- actually, I forget. What did we decide we were going to call this, uh, type? Not-Caster? Anti-Caster? Something like that?
> how about alt-caster
What, like alt-rock? Fine, whatever, works for me. "Him who?" I ask Alt-Caster.
"Oh, come on. You know. Him." She puts her arms around her knees and starts to rock back and forth, a big empty grin on her face. "The pharmakos? The blessed-and-cursed, the sacred corruption, the eater of sins. The spark of darkness, the lowest-made-high. The healing sickness. Katharma, perikathairō, peripsēma. He crawls towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born --"
"Okay, okay. I get it. That guy," I interrupt, since this doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. "So you talked to him. Then, what... you tricked Berserker into getting eaten by the shadow, too?"
"Oh, no." She looks a little insulted. "Nothing like that. I just asked and he went."
I raise an eyebrow. "And that worked?"
"Well, okay." Alt-Caster shrugs. "I guess I did help that I had this." She snaps her fingers.
One of the glass panels behind her lights up. I find myself looking into a large tank. Inside of it, in some kind of brackish water, floats Illya. She is unconscious, naked -- a fact that I very much do not appreciate at all, thank you... and also missing all four of her limbs.
> fuck
I quickly avert my eyes. Am... am I really seeing this?
> afraid so
> stay calm and keep her talking
I'll try. Alt-Caster jumps to her feet. "And, y'know, I was really hoping things with Saber were gonna be that simple too. Just -- poof! Just use a Command Seal to summon her straight up."
She points. Another panel nearby the TV cart lights up. And there's Shirou, of course -- naked, unconscious, limbless, except for the arm with his Command Seals on it.
"But he only had one left, so I couldn't. But then I realized -- if I just left you down there with her, you'd be smart enough to find a way to bring her up here to me! And you did!" She beams at me with genuine gratitude. "And now I get to play with her too!"
I feel sick. "... why Saber, though? What do you need her for?"
Alt-Caster giggles. "She's just so cool, you know? And besides... what girl doesn't want to get swept off her feet by a knight in shining armor?" She pauses and tilts her head. "Well, okay... Master's my knight in shining armor. But you get two knights when you play chess, don't you? So why can't I?
"You wanna meet him?" I guess she takes my stunned silence for a yes, because she skips over to the glass bench in the room's center. I swallow and reluctantly follow her. The bench -- no, glass coffin, really -- lights up as I peer inside.
It's Kuzuki. In the same state as Illya.
"You know, when I went to him with the knife, he only said one thing?" Alt-Caster sits down next to the coffin. "He just asked me if it would help me. When I said yes, he didn't even try to fight. He just let me do it." She rests her head dreamily on the glass, just over Kuzuki's limbless torso. "That's why I hate him most of all."
> jesus
I take an unsteady step back. "So... uh. What about Assassin's Master? They in here too somewhere?"
"Huh?" She raises her head. "Oh, I didn't say? I'm Assassin's Master."
I blink. "You can do that?"
"Shhhh." She smiles mischievously and puts a finger to her lips. "I cheated. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"Sure," I say faintly. Unfortunately, that leaves me with only one question I can think of. It's the one I really don't want to ask. "So... all these glass things around. Are all of them, uh... occupied?"
"Most," Alt-Caster says matter-of-factly. "I keep havin' to add more. There's a lot to fit in, you know? The monks, the maids, all the people from town..."
Even though I'm expecting it, I feel a shiver go down my spine. "Why... why would you do that."
"What do you think, silly? Safety!" She looks at me like that's the most obvious conclusion in the world. "If I take too much of their mana, it could kill them, right? This way, they won't fall or move too much or whatever."
> ask her what happens if they're removed from the tubes
"Could you maybe... let them out at some point?" I ask weakly.
"Nope!" she says, far too cheerfully.
"Can't or won't?"
"Both! They die if I do that!" She shrugs again. "And anyway, I need their mana. Without that, this place wouldn't be able to float no more. And then everyone wouldn't get to live in a flying castle." Going by her expression, she seems to consider this a perfectly reasonable trade-off for being a comatose quadruple amputee.
I swallow again. "... don't suppose you've given any thought to quality of life issues here, have you?"
"Huh?" Alt-Caster gives me a blank look. "What's that?"
"That's kinda what I figured."
> yeah okay
> might be time to try and find an excuse for a graceful exit here
When all else fails, go with the classics. "... hey, um, is there a bathroom around here somewhere? If that's okay with you, I mean."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that."
I do not like the sound of that. I carefully take another step back. "... why?"
"The stuff inside the tubes takes care of all that for you," Alt-Caster says casually. "In fact, if you really need to go... guess it's probably about time anyway."
She waves her hand. Five of her mouth-headed skeleton puppets spring up out of the floor. They're a bit different from the ones I've seen before. First, their left arm ends in what looks like a large hacksaw made from bone, while the fingers on their right hand resemble scalpels. Second, they're all dressed in nurse outfits -- as in the fetish-y costumes they sell online, not scrubs or whatever. Neither change strikes me as much of an improvement.
> shit
Oh, fuck no. I retreat a few more steps back. "Can't we talk about this?" I plead.
"Eh, I'm bored with that now. And my throat is starting to do that thing where it gets all scratchy, you know?" Alt-Caster smiles and waves. "But thanks for the conversation, Mr. Talky! Don't worry -- I saved you one of the nice tubes."
The nurse skeletons surge towards me.
> nope
Nope! Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope! I finally give into instinct and bolt for the exit.
***
I make it down to one floor before I run into another skeleton squad sweeping their way up the stairs. Nowhere to go.
I rush down a hallway and pick a door at random. I wind up inside what looks like a big messy playroom. At the center lies this absolutely gigantic pile of stuffed animals even taller than I am. No time to think. I dive into the pile and worm my way inwards.
I hear the door creak open. I hold my breath. They file in one by one, bony heels crushing stray Legos. I hear them spread throughout the room, all around the pile.
Then they just stop. And wait.
Don't breathe don't move don't breathe. Do I even need to say how much I don't want this to happen?!
> nope
I mean -- fuck, losing a hand was bad enough! And now all four limbs?! And what happens if I don't reset when it happens?! What if I'm just... stuck there? In a jar? Forever?!
> i know
> just hold in there
Hold in there for what?! Saber and Rin are gone! Shirou's... God, I can only hope he's comatose. Fuck only knows where Lancer and Archer are. The military's stuck outside. Don't have a weapon. No cyanide pills or poison teeth.
Just what the fuck am I supposed to do?!
> hope
How?! For what?!
I see light as a hand shifts away the big teddy bear in front of my face. A maw of bone stares down at me, its jaws open wide.
There's a blur in the air. The skeleton collapses into ash.
Archer stands in front of me, blades in hand, looking utterly exhausted. He bears a nasty-looking spear wound in his side, the bloodstains blending into his red coat.
I nearly start to cry from sheer relief. Thank God. Thank fucking God.
He looks down at me. "Saber?"
I shake my head. "Where's Lancer?"
"He's not coming," Archer says grimly. "And Rin's gone."
"Yeah."
"Come on." He reaches in and grabs me by the back of the neck, plucking me straight out of the pile --
ZZRRRP
***
> download complete
I haul Lancer back up to his feet. "Come on," I mutter. "While we've got an opening."
Lancer coughs up some blood. I imagine that has something to do with the two handaxes embedded in his chest. Nearby, Assassin Alter's body slowly begins to dissolve into mist. Lancer finally figured out a way past that phasing/temporary non-existence bullshit: he deliberately let Assassin's attack hit him, then blasted him with his Noble Phantasm at point-blank range. Not exactly an ideal solution, but hey, it worked.
Which just leaves us with one large problem. On the other side of the room, Berserker Alter feels his way down the wall towards the open gate. Four lives. That's all I could manage before the mana supply from Rin cut out.
"Hold on there, chancer." Lancer pushes me off, leaning on his spear. "Back a bit. I got one last trick ta play."
I step back, eying Berserker carefully -- he might not have ears, but I think he can still feel vibrations through the air. Lancer traces a few runes onto the ground. A huge standing stone -- a menhir -- sprouts up from the ground. Vines wrap around Lancer and pull him to the rock, binding him upright.
"The hell is that supposed to do?" I hiss.
"Simple," Lancer whispers. "Keeps me on my feet. Long as I'm standing, I won't die. Not while an enemy still breathes before me. Wouldn't be much of a hero otherwise, would I?"
"But you can't kill him," I counter. "You know that, right?"
"Now yer gettin' it." He nods down at the blades in my hands. "Borrow one of them sewing needles off ya? Could use an extra ting."
I reluctantly pass him Kanshou. "You don't have to do this."
"What, and miss me chance at immortality?" Lancer grins. "On yer bike, Archer. Go find yer girl. And when ya do, tell her I made myself useful, will ya?"
I don't have the heart to tell him the truth. "... thanks."
I make a run for the gate. Seems that Berserker can still sense mana to an extent. He looks in my direction --
"OI, GOBSHITE!" Lancer beans the monster in the head with Kanshou's hilt. (Oh, sure. Go ahead. Use it that way, why don't you. It's not like I've got a limited supply of mana left and might not be able to make another one or anything.) "ARE YE STARTIN'?! I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY!"
Berserker roars and charges the tall stone. I pass through the gate and rush up the staircase I find there. Not that I have any clue what I'm heading towards... now that Rin's dead --
"-- genuinely do hate you, you know that? I mean it. You --"
***
ZZRRRP
Archer drops me like I'm a live grenade, sending me spilling to the ground, legs only partway out of the stuffed animal pile. I pull my face out of the carpet and look up at him. "Oh, come on. That was not my fault."
He growls in the back of his throat. "Get up. We need to move."
I struggle to my feet and chase him down the steps. At least it's easier sprinting down the stairs than up.
Naturally, though, it doesn't last. As we close in on the base of the tower, I see a red tendril slam into the wall down the steps from us. Followed closely by the shadow itself.
I grab Archer by the coat sleeve. "Fuckfuckshit back upstairs! Back upstairs NOW."
"Towards Caster?!"
"Still better than this shit! Trust me!"
We turn and rush back up as the shadow floods after us. Fortunately, it seems to pause on the third or fourth floor. I risk a glance back and see it head into one of the rooms there. I guess it's taking its time for some reason?
> no time don't question it
As we reach the bottom of the stairs up to the floor that Caster's on, Archer stops us short. He pulls an arrow out from beneath his coat and flings it up at the ceiling. It explodes, producing a shower of rubble. He grabs me beneath the arms and wall-jumps us up through the hole and up to the next level -- in other words, past Alt-Caster. Bypassing a boss fight. I can get behind that.
Unfortunately, another three floors up, we find ourselves on the roof of the tower. The only feature up here -- aside from the stairs we came up -- is a flagpole with a banner bearing the image of a certain super-copyrighted mouse. No sign of any piles of rope or laundry lines or convenient scaffolding. Guess she hasn't gotten around to seeing Aladdin yet. Just my luck.
> one jump ahead of the madgirl
I glance down over the parapet. Long drop. Really long drop. "Think you can get us down?" I ask Archer.
"Uh, maybe? I'm running pretty low on -- aw, balls," he says glumly as rune circles pop up in the air all around us. Damn it. Busted.
"Okay, rude." Alt-Caster appears in a flurry of white sparkles, her arms crossed irritably. "Do I come over and blow up pieces of your house?" She points. The circles of death all focus on Archer. He raises the white blade.
"Hey, hey, wait," I say, trying for a distraction. "Aren't you gonna wait until your buddy gets up here? Add another Servant to the collection?"
"Mmmmh..." She tilts her head. "Nah. I don't fancy him. Too surly."
"Oh, well, fuck you too," Archer grumbles.
"See?" Alt-Caster raises her hand. "Buh-bye, Mr. Red...
"... oh." She looks down in dull surprise at the sword point sticking out of her chest.
Behind her stands Saber, her blue dress torn and ragged, her eyes full of silent rage. Her left arm is gone. She holds Excalibur in her right hand, its blade buried in the magician's back.
"Oh." Alt-Caster coughs. Tar-black ichor stains the front of her white robe. "Okay. So this is happening, I guess."
White static surrounds her. Two skeletal dragon wings -- fashioned from gold -- burst out of her back, pushing Saber out of the way. Alt-Caster leans way forward, giant claws growing from her hands and feet. In a flash, Archer steps in front of her and drives his knife down at the back of her neck. Too late -- a golden skull sprouts from out of her head, shattering the blade's tip.
"All the powers of hell an' stuff," Alt-Caster mumbles.
> oh i get it
> she's pulling a maleficent
Where Alt-Caster stood, a golden dracolich, even larger than the ones we encountered on the way here, unfurls itself and roars. With a swipe of its wings, it takes to the air, knocking the flagpole aside.
I rush over to the Servants. Archer's bow appears in his hands. He pelts the dracolich with arrows as it wheels around back towards us. The beast seems to pass through the explosions without a scratch. It dives towards us, strange energy crackling in its open mouth.
"MOVE!" Saber grabs me with her one arm and retreats down the stairs. A beam of light bursts out from between the dracolich's jaws and immolates the entire rooftop in green flames.
***
The next thing I know, we're all crouched down next to the stairs on the floor below the rooftop, Archer included. He looks up at the ceiling as the dracolich passes over us with a roar.
Saber looks to me. "Where's Shirou?"
"You don't wanna know," I say hollowly. "I saw what happened downstairs. How'd you get away?"
"Rin." Saber looks away. "She detonated one of her gems after we hit the water. The blast gave me just enough room to get clear... mostly." She glances at her missing arm. "That... thing is still hunting for me, I think. I tried to lead it away and double back, but..."
"We saw it downstairs. Looked like it was headed up here."
She sighs. "Of course it is."
Another blast of flame rushes down the staircase over our heads and scorches the wall. As it clears, Archer pops up and fires a shot off as the dracolich swings by again.
"You got anything left, Saber?" Archer asks as he crouches back down. "I'm running on fumes here."
"Just one." Saber looks at Excalibur. "I may have enough mana left to use my Noble Phantasm. But there's a problem."
"You don't say."
"I believe I will be able to trigger the attack in my current state," Saber rasps. "But without two hands, I won't be able to direct it. The sword will annihilate everything in the surrounding area. Including us."
"So... Excalibomb?" I say. She nods.
I run through the numbers in my head. City's likely been evacuated by now. We're exhausted, injured, and stuck between two monsters. Lancer's on his way out. Rin's dead. Shirou and everyone else on board would likely wish they were dead, if they could... anything to add?
> can't think of anything
"... yeah," I say. "Yeah, I think we're at that point."
Another fireball rockets down the stairs. "If you're gonna do it, Saber, you better do it now." Archer notches three more arrows on his bow. "This trap could close on us any second now."
"I will need some time." Saber staggers to her feet. She steps back away from me and plants the sword into the ground before her. "Cover me as long as you can, Archer."
"I'm in no position to make promises."
The side of Saber's mouth twitches wryly. "Fantastic."
She pauses. The not-quite-a-smile fades. "... there is something else I must say."
"What?" Since I can't do anything useful right now, I might as well supply the leading questions.
"I believe there should be no secrets between allies about to die together," Saber says. "As such, honor compels me to --"
"You do realize that one of us gets to walk away from this, right?" Archer shifts his eyes towards me.
I shrug. "I mean... he's right."
"All the same, I --"
I hear a loud crash as the dracolich lands on the roof above us and tries to shove one of its claws -- is that the right word? What do dragons have, anyway? Feet? Paws? -- down the stairwell. Unfortunately, the entrance is just a little too small for it. Archer peppers it with arrows until it gives up and takes off again.
"All the same," Saber continues, "there is one final issue I must address.
"Archer. Why have you been trying to kill Shirou?"
"Whaaat?" I grin. Then I notice the five-megaton glare she's got fixed on Archer and I stop. "C'mon, Saber. What are you talking about? There's no way he'd --"
"Really, Saber." Archer just sounds tired. "Is now really the best time for this?"
"Now is the only time for this," Saber growls. "Will you give me your answer directly? Or do I have to go through it all step by step?"
Archer avoids her gaze. He doesn't say anything.
"Very well." Saber tightens her grip on Excalibur. "What happened Wednesday puzzled me at first, since nothing else in the kitchen seemed to be poisoned. Then I remembered that mana surge the night before. That was you absorbing everything in the fridge besides the bitter melon cola into your Reality Marble, wasn't it? You needed to make sure Shirou brought that exact drink to school the next day, since it was the only thing that could cover up the taste of the poison you planned to add. Some derivative of nightshade, correct?"
"... atropine," Archer mumbles. "S'a drug used to treat nerve gas exposure."
"I thought as much."
A massive jolt shakes the entire tower as the dracolich rams straight into the wall to our side. The stone refuses to buckle, though, and the only thing it accomplishes is to knock some dust loose from the rafters overhead. Solid German engineering, I guess.
I look back and forth between the two of them. They're... they're serious?
"I did not understand Thursday's attack until I saw the 'trick' you used on the wards earlier." Saber's eyes remain fixed on Archer. "That was Tristan's blade, wasn't it? The Sword of Mercy, effective against barriers, but sworn to never again take a life. I realized then you would have seen Assassin's weapon when I challenged him on Monday. I suppose that's all you require in order to fashion a replica, isn't it? It might still have fooled me, had not all of Rider's wounds been made by an axe of some sort."
Archer mumbles something under his breath that I can't hear.
The dracolich lands on the rooftop again. No fire this time, though. Instead, I hear talons scrape against the stonework. I guess it's trying to dig its way through to us now? Great.
"Last night was simple by comparison." Lightning flashes alongside Excalibur's edge. "I didn't sense any magic. My Instinct would have detected any sort of mortar fire or remote attack. The only solution is some sort of modern explosive, planted by someone familiar with both the house and Shirou's habits while we were away. You would have had time to dig something up while Rin was in the hospital. I imagine by that point you must have been getting quite frustrated."
"Oh, you have no idea," Archer growls.
"I suppose I wouldn't."
Excalibur glows brighter. Golden particles begin to drift up through the floor.
"And so I ask you once more, Archer." There's a dangerous edge in Saber's voice now. "Why?"
Archer sighs. "Don't suppose there's any chance I could convince you I was acting under Rin's orders?"
"You could not." Saber narrows her eyes coldly.
Archer sighs. "Yeah... I didn't think so.
"But all right." He suddenly jumps to his feet. They face each other, the golden specks floating in the air between them. "If we're really doing this... how about I put it this way. Remember your own wish for the Grail, Saber? The real one?"
Saber shifts her jaw. "You couldn't possibly know --"
"Oh, trust me. I do." Archer stares her in the eye. "So here's my question... what would you do if you didn't need the Grail to get what you wanted? What if it was possible to take a direct approach?"
"But if you... that would mean..." Saber's eyes go wide. "... oh no..."
I'm lost here. Are you lost here?
> i think that's the point
There's a loud crash from down below. An iron door rockets up the stairs and bounces across the floor into the back corner. I see the flash of a familiar red tendril.
Fuck. Shadow's here.
I leap to my feet. Archer immediately puts an arrow into the roof. It explodes and collapses onto the downwards staircase, filling the entrance with rubble. "We're out of time!" he barks. "Saber --"
"On it!" A vortex of light bursts into existence around Saber and the sword, the air swirling around them like a tornado. "Soldier's dream!" she chants. "Hope of the oppressed! My friend! -- I call upon thy power one last time!"
Game plan, game plan, what do I do? Try to get in between Saber and the shadow, I guess? I take two steps in that direction. Then a huge crack in the roof opens up above our heads. The dragon lets out a furious roar. Son of a --
"Rho Aias!" Archer raises his hand. His shield appears over us as the first jet of fire descends. Looks pretty thin in terms of layers, though... he wasn't kidding about being low on juice...
"With thy name, I seal my final prayer!" The aura around Saber intensifies. What's with this in-the-name-of-the-moon crap? She's never had to do that before.
> had to guess
> maybe a password or an unlock code of some sort
> this is kinda her self-destruct
I look anxiously down the stairs. I can already see the shadow oozing through the cracks in the rubble.
"For God, church and country!" Saber roars. "EXCALI -- what?!"
That can't be right. Wait, why's she looking over here --
Someone grabs me from behind, pale arms folding around my chest.
"... dickweasels," I hear Archer mutter as everything disappears into white static.
Yeah, okay... now that I've heard someone else say it, I really don't think it works.
***
The next thing I know, I'm in the sky. Staring down at the city below, my feet dangling over a five-kilometer drop.
"Look, look!" Alt-Caster whispers urgently into my ear. She clutches me to her chest, her white cloak whipping around us. "You're gonna miss it. Any second now --"
She jostles my head in the direction of the island, floating in the distance before us. Just as she does, there's this feeling of void -- a negative pressure, like the universe taking a deep breath...
The tower explodes in a massive cross-shaped burst of gold light, burning the sky with the intensity of a thousand suns. Excalibur rips the entire island into shreds, casting the rubble down onto the skyscrapers below. I hear Alt-Caster laugh with delight as the shockwave washes over us. Like a kid at a fireworks show. It is kinda a neat explosion, I guess.
I swallow as the light fades. "Um, didn't Saber --?" I ask -- or at least I try to. I get a couple thousand meters stuck in my throat midway through.
"Oh, just another puppet," she says dreamily. "Another illusion. I told you about illusions, didn't I? Hush, though. It's not over."
The hell does she mean by that? Reluctantly, I look down at the city. At the massive pile of earth and rubble that landed next to the Center Building, all that's left of the island.
I hear a loud, inhuman shriek from below. It starts above my upper hearing register and descends, building in volume.
The shadow erupts from beneath the rubble. It's huge now, comparable in size to the buildings around it, and it's assumed a vaguely humanoid shape. A giant made of night. As I watch, it takes its first step forward.
"You see?" Alt-Caster giggles. "Do you see it now? He can't be stopped. Won't stop. He's been waiting in the dark for so very long, you see? Plotting and planning and making sure everything's just as perfect as he can. For his Bethlehem. He's ready. Ready to be born.
"Wanna know a secret? You wanna hear his name?"
"... okay?" I squeak.
She leans in closer, her breath tickling my ear. "Aŋra," she whispers. "MAINIIU.
"Okay, I love you! Buh-bye!" she says cheerfully. And drops me.
> continue: iteration 29, day 8, afternoon
Everything clicks together in my head all at once. I stand there frozen as Caster -- or at least someone who looks like her -- squeals and starts rolling around on the floor gleefully. "I got her I got her I got her eeeeeeeeeee!"
On the television screen, the entire floor of the main hall collapses into the lake as the shadow's tendrils rip the woodwork into shreds. There's a bright flash of light, and the screen cuts out to static. It was a trap. The entire room, Rin included.
I turn and stare at the madwoman as she lies giggling on the floor. "You... I told you about the shadow in the lake on Monday. You went to go find it, didn't you?"
She snickers and sits up. "Dumb Lilyhead. Kept wondering why her puppets didn't come back. So she went to check herself."
"It ate you and Assassin."
She nods. "Went inside, went inside. Talked to him. After that, everything just made so much more sense."
> him?
On it. "Him?" I ask -- actually, I forget. What did we decide we were going to call this, uh, type? Not-Caster? Anti-Caster? Something like that?
> how about alt-caster
What, like alt-rock? Fine, whatever, works for me. "Him who?" I ask Alt-Caster.
"Oh, come on. You know. Him." She puts her arms around her knees and starts to rock back and forth, a big empty grin on her face. "The pharmakos? The blessed-and-cursed, the sacred corruption, the eater of sins. The spark of darkness, the lowest-made-high. The healing sickness. Katharma, perikathairō, peripsēma. He crawls towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born --"
"Okay, okay. I get it. That guy," I interrupt, since this doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. "So you talked to him. Then, what... you tricked Berserker into getting eaten by the shadow, too?"
"Oh, no." She looks a little insulted. "Nothing like that. I just asked and he went."
I raise an eyebrow. "And that worked?"
"Well, okay." Alt-Caster shrugs. "I guess I did help that I had this." She snaps her fingers.
One of the glass panels behind her lights up. I find myself looking into a large tank. Inside of it, in some kind of brackish water, floats Illya. She is unconscious, naked -- a fact that I very much do not appreciate at all, thank you... and also missing all four of her limbs.
> fuck
I quickly avert my eyes. Am... am I really seeing this?
> afraid so
> stay calm and keep her talking
I'll try. Alt-Caster jumps to her feet. "And, y'know, I was really hoping things with Saber were gonna be that simple too. Just -- poof! Just use a Command Seal to summon her straight up."
She points. Another panel nearby the TV cart lights up. And there's Shirou, of course -- naked, unconscious, limbless, except for the arm with his Command Seals on it.
"But he only had one left, so I couldn't. But then I realized -- if I just left you down there with her, you'd be smart enough to find a way to bring her up here to me! And you did!" She beams at me with genuine gratitude. "And now I get to play with her too!"
I feel sick. "... why Saber, though? What do you need her for?"
Alt-Caster giggles. "She's just so cool, you know? And besides... what girl doesn't want to get swept off her feet by a knight in shining armor?" She pauses and tilts her head. "Well, okay... Master's my knight in shining armor. But you get two knights when you play chess, don't you? So why can't I?
"You wanna meet him?" I guess she takes my stunned silence for a yes, because she skips over to the glass bench in the room's center. I swallow and reluctantly follow her. The bench -- no, glass coffin, really -- lights up as I peer inside.
It's Kuzuki. In the same state as Illya.
"You know, when I went to him with the knife, he only said one thing?" Alt-Caster sits down next to the coffin. "He just asked me if it would help me. When I said yes, he didn't even try to fight. He just let me do it." She rests her head dreamily on the glass, just over Kuzuki's limbless torso. "That's why I hate him most of all."
> jesus
I take an unsteady step back. "So... uh. What about Assassin's Master? They in here too somewhere?"
"Huh?" She raises her head. "Oh, I didn't say? I'm Assassin's Master."
I blink. "You can do that?"
"Shhhh." She smiles mischievously and puts a finger to her lips. "I cheated. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"Sure," I say faintly. Unfortunately, that leaves me with only one question I can think of. It's the one I really don't want to ask. "So... all these glass things around. Are all of them, uh... occupied?"
"Most," Alt-Caster says matter-of-factly. "I keep havin' to add more. There's a lot to fit in, you know? The monks, the maids, all the people from town..."
Even though I'm expecting it, I feel a shiver go down my spine. "Why... why would you do that."
"What do you think, silly? Safety!" She looks at me like that's the most obvious conclusion in the world. "If I take too much of their mana, it could kill them, right? This way, they won't fall or move too much or whatever."
> ask her what happens if they're removed from the tubes
"Could you maybe... let them out at some point?" I ask weakly.
"Nope!" she says, far too cheerfully.
"Can't or won't?"
"Both! They die if I do that!" She shrugs again. "And anyway, I need their mana. Without that, this place wouldn't be able to float no more. And then everyone wouldn't get to live in a flying castle." Going by her expression, she seems to consider this a perfectly reasonable trade-off for being a comatose quadruple amputee.
I swallow again. "... don't suppose you've given any thought to quality of life issues here, have you?"
"Huh?" Alt-Caster gives me a blank look. "What's that?"
"That's kinda what I figured."
> yeah okay
> might be time to try and find an excuse for a graceful exit here
When all else fails, go with the classics. "... hey, um, is there a bathroom around here somewhere? If that's okay with you, I mean."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that."
I do not like the sound of that. I carefully take another step back. "... why?"
"The stuff inside the tubes takes care of all that for you," Alt-Caster says casually. "In fact, if you really need to go... guess it's probably about time anyway."
She waves her hand. Five of her mouth-headed skeleton puppets spring up out of the floor. They're a bit different from the ones I've seen before. First, their left arm ends in what looks like a large hacksaw made from bone, while the fingers on their right hand resemble scalpels. Second, they're all dressed in nurse outfits -- as in the fetish-y costumes they sell online, not scrubs or whatever. Neither change strikes me as much of an improvement.
> shit
Oh, fuck no. I retreat a few more steps back. "Can't we talk about this?" I plead.
"Eh, I'm bored with that now. And my throat is starting to do that thing where it gets all scratchy, you know?" Alt-Caster smiles and waves. "But thanks for the conversation, Mr. Talky! Don't worry -- I saved you one of the nice tubes."
The nurse skeletons surge towards me.
> nope
Nope! Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope! I finally give into instinct and bolt for the exit.
***
I make it down to one floor before I run into another skeleton squad sweeping their way up the stairs. Nowhere to go.
I rush down a hallway and pick a door at random. I wind up inside what looks like a big messy playroom. At the center lies this absolutely gigantic pile of stuffed animals even taller than I am. No time to think. I dive into the pile and worm my way inwards.
I hear the door creak open. I hold my breath. They file in one by one, bony heels crushing stray Legos. I hear them spread throughout the room, all around the pile.
Then they just stop. And wait.
Don't breathe don't move don't breathe. Do I even need to say how much I don't want this to happen?!
> nope
I mean -- fuck, losing a hand was bad enough! And now all four limbs?! And what happens if I don't reset when it happens?! What if I'm just... stuck there? In a jar? Forever?!
> i know
> just hold in there
Hold in there for what?! Saber and Rin are gone! Shirou's... God, I can only hope he's comatose. Fuck only knows where Lancer and Archer are. The military's stuck outside. Don't have a weapon. No cyanide pills or poison teeth.
Just what the fuck am I supposed to do?!
> hope
How?! For what?!
I see light as a hand shifts away the big teddy bear in front of my face. A maw of bone stares down at me, its jaws open wide.
There's a blur in the air. The skeleton collapses into ash.
Archer stands in front of me, blades in hand, looking utterly exhausted. He bears a nasty-looking spear wound in his side, the bloodstains blending into his red coat.
I nearly start to cry from sheer relief. Thank God. Thank fucking God.
He looks down at me. "Saber?"
I shake my head. "Where's Lancer?"
"He's not coming," Archer says grimly. "And Rin's gone."
"Yeah."
"Come on." He reaches in and grabs me by the back of the neck, plucking me straight out of the pile --
ZZRRRP
***
> download complete
I haul Lancer back up to his feet. "Come on," I mutter. "While we've got an opening."
Lancer coughs up some blood. I imagine that has something to do with the two handaxes embedded in his chest. Nearby, Assassin Alter's body slowly begins to dissolve into mist. Lancer finally figured out a way past that phasing/temporary non-existence bullshit: he deliberately let Assassin's attack hit him, then blasted him with his Noble Phantasm at point-blank range. Not exactly an ideal solution, but hey, it worked.
Which just leaves us with one large problem. On the other side of the room, Berserker Alter feels his way down the wall towards the open gate. Four lives. That's all I could manage before the mana supply from Rin cut out.
"Hold on there, chancer." Lancer pushes me off, leaning on his spear. "Back a bit. I got one last trick ta play."
I step back, eying Berserker carefully -- he might not have ears, but I think he can still feel vibrations through the air. Lancer traces a few runes onto the ground. A huge standing stone -- a menhir -- sprouts up from the ground. Vines wrap around Lancer and pull him to the rock, binding him upright.
"The hell is that supposed to do?" I hiss.
"Simple," Lancer whispers. "Keeps me on my feet. Long as I'm standing, I won't die. Not while an enemy still breathes before me. Wouldn't be much of a hero otherwise, would I?"
"But you can't kill him," I counter. "You know that, right?"
"Now yer gettin' it." He nods down at the blades in my hands. "Borrow one of them sewing needles off ya? Could use an extra ting."
I reluctantly pass him Kanshou. "You don't have to do this."
"What, and miss me chance at immortality?" Lancer grins. "On yer bike, Archer. Go find yer girl. And when ya do, tell her I made myself useful, will ya?"
I don't have the heart to tell him the truth. "... thanks."
I make a run for the gate. Seems that Berserker can still sense mana to an extent. He looks in my direction --
"OI, GOBSHITE!" Lancer beans the monster in the head with Kanshou's hilt. (Oh, sure. Go ahead. Use it that way, why don't you. It's not like I've got a limited supply of mana left and might not be able to make another one or anything.) "ARE YE STARTIN'?! I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY!"
Berserker roars and charges the tall stone. I pass through the gate and rush up the staircase I find there. Not that I have any clue what I'm heading towards... now that Rin's dead --
"-- genuinely do hate you, you know that? I mean it. You --"
***
ZZRRRP
Archer drops me like I'm a live grenade, sending me spilling to the ground, legs only partway out of the stuffed animal pile. I pull my face out of the carpet and look up at him. "Oh, come on. That was not my fault."
He growls in the back of his throat. "Get up. We need to move."
I struggle to my feet and chase him down the steps. At least it's easier sprinting down the stairs than up.
Naturally, though, it doesn't last. As we close in on the base of the tower, I see a red tendril slam into the wall down the steps from us. Followed closely by the shadow itself.
I grab Archer by the coat sleeve. "Fuckfuckshit back upstairs! Back upstairs NOW."
"Towards Caster?!"
"Still better than this shit! Trust me!"
We turn and rush back up as the shadow floods after us. Fortunately, it seems to pause on the third or fourth floor. I risk a glance back and see it head into one of the rooms there. I guess it's taking its time for some reason?
> no time don't question it
As we reach the bottom of the stairs up to the floor that Caster's on, Archer stops us short. He pulls an arrow out from beneath his coat and flings it up at the ceiling. It explodes, producing a shower of rubble. He grabs me beneath the arms and wall-jumps us up through the hole and up to the next level -- in other words, past Alt-Caster. Bypassing a boss fight. I can get behind that.
Unfortunately, another three floors up, we find ourselves on the roof of the tower. The only feature up here -- aside from the stairs we came up -- is a flagpole with a banner bearing the image of a certain super-copyrighted mouse. No sign of any piles of rope or laundry lines or convenient scaffolding. Guess she hasn't gotten around to seeing Aladdin yet. Just my luck.
> one jump ahead of the madgirl
I glance down over the parapet. Long drop. Really long drop. "Think you can get us down?" I ask Archer.
"Uh, maybe? I'm running pretty low on -- aw, balls," he says glumly as rune circles pop up in the air all around us. Damn it. Busted.
"Okay, rude." Alt-Caster appears in a flurry of white sparkles, her arms crossed irritably. "Do I come over and blow up pieces of your house?" She points. The circles of death all focus on Archer. He raises the white blade.
"Hey, hey, wait," I say, trying for a distraction. "Aren't you gonna wait until your buddy gets up here? Add another Servant to the collection?"
"Mmmmh..." She tilts her head. "Nah. I don't fancy him. Too surly."
"Oh, well, fuck you too," Archer grumbles.
"See?" Alt-Caster raises her hand. "Buh-bye, Mr. Red...
"... oh." She looks down in dull surprise at the sword point sticking out of her chest.
Behind her stands Saber, her blue dress torn and ragged, her eyes full of silent rage. Her left arm is gone. She holds Excalibur in her right hand, its blade buried in the magician's back.
"Oh." Alt-Caster coughs. Tar-black ichor stains the front of her white robe. "Okay. So this is happening, I guess."
White static surrounds her. Two skeletal dragon wings -- fashioned from gold -- burst out of her back, pushing Saber out of the way. Alt-Caster leans way forward, giant claws growing from her hands and feet. In a flash, Archer steps in front of her and drives his knife down at the back of her neck. Too late -- a golden skull sprouts from out of her head, shattering the blade's tip.
"All the powers of hell an' stuff," Alt-Caster mumbles.
> oh i get it
> she's pulling a maleficent
Where Alt-Caster stood, a golden dracolich, even larger than the ones we encountered on the way here, unfurls itself and roars. With a swipe of its wings, it takes to the air, knocking the flagpole aside.
I rush over to the Servants. Archer's bow appears in his hands. He pelts the dracolich with arrows as it wheels around back towards us. The beast seems to pass through the explosions without a scratch. It dives towards us, strange energy crackling in its open mouth.
"MOVE!" Saber grabs me with her one arm and retreats down the stairs. A beam of light bursts out from between the dracolich's jaws and immolates the entire rooftop in green flames.
***
The next thing I know, we're all crouched down next to the stairs on the floor below the rooftop, Archer included. He looks up at the ceiling as the dracolich passes over us with a roar.
Saber looks to me. "Where's Shirou?"
"You don't wanna know," I say hollowly. "I saw what happened downstairs. How'd you get away?"
"Rin." Saber looks away. "She detonated one of her gems after we hit the water. The blast gave me just enough room to get clear... mostly." She glances at her missing arm. "That... thing is still hunting for me, I think. I tried to lead it away and double back, but..."
"We saw it downstairs. Looked like it was headed up here."
She sighs. "Of course it is."
Another blast of flame rushes down the staircase over our heads and scorches the wall. As it clears, Archer pops up and fires a shot off as the dracolich swings by again.
"You got anything left, Saber?" Archer asks as he crouches back down. "I'm running on fumes here."
"Just one." Saber looks at Excalibur. "I may have enough mana left to use my Noble Phantasm. But there's a problem."
"You don't say."
"I believe I will be able to trigger the attack in my current state," Saber rasps. "But without two hands, I won't be able to direct it. The sword will annihilate everything in the surrounding area. Including us."
"So... Excalibomb?" I say. She nods.
I run through the numbers in my head. City's likely been evacuated by now. We're exhausted, injured, and stuck between two monsters. Lancer's on his way out. Rin's dead. Shirou and everyone else on board would likely wish they were dead, if they could... anything to add?
> can't think of anything
"... yeah," I say. "Yeah, I think we're at that point."
Another fireball rockets down the stairs. "If you're gonna do it, Saber, you better do it now." Archer notches three more arrows on his bow. "This trap could close on us any second now."
"I will need some time." Saber staggers to her feet. She steps back away from me and plants the sword into the ground before her. "Cover me as long as you can, Archer."
"I'm in no position to make promises."
The side of Saber's mouth twitches wryly. "Fantastic."
She pauses. The not-quite-a-smile fades. "... there is something else I must say."
"What?" Since I can't do anything useful right now, I might as well supply the leading questions.
"I believe there should be no secrets between allies about to die together," Saber says. "As such, honor compels me to --"
"You do realize that one of us gets to walk away from this, right?" Archer shifts his eyes towards me.
I shrug. "I mean... he's right."
"All the same, I --"
I hear a loud crash as the dracolich lands on the roof above us and tries to shove one of its claws -- is that the right word? What do dragons have, anyway? Feet? Paws? -- down the stairwell. Unfortunately, the entrance is just a little too small for it. Archer peppers it with arrows until it gives up and takes off again.
"All the same," Saber continues, "there is one final issue I must address.
"Archer. Why have you been trying to kill Shirou?"
"Whaaat?" I grin. Then I notice the five-megaton glare she's got fixed on Archer and I stop. "C'mon, Saber. What are you talking about? There's no way he'd --"
"Really, Saber." Archer just sounds tired. "Is now really the best time for this?"
"Now is the only time for this," Saber growls. "Will you give me your answer directly? Or do I have to go through it all step by step?"
Archer avoids her gaze. He doesn't say anything.
"Very well." Saber tightens her grip on Excalibur. "What happened Wednesday puzzled me at first, since nothing else in the kitchen seemed to be poisoned. Then I remembered that mana surge the night before. That was you absorbing everything in the fridge besides the bitter melon cola into your Reality Marble, wasn't it? You needed to make sure Shirou brought that exact drink to school the next day, since it was the only thing that could cover up the taste of the poison you planned to add. Some derivative of nightshade, correct?"
"... atropine," Archer mumbles. "S'a drug used to treat nerve gas exposure."
"I thought as much."
A massive jolt shakes the entire tower as the dracolich rams straight into the wall to our side. The stone refuses to buckle, though, and the only thing it accomplishes is to knock some dust loose from the rafters overhead. Solid German engineering, I guess.
I look back and forth between the two of them. They're... they're serious?
"I did not understand Thursday's attack until I saw the 'trick' you used on the wards earlier." Saber's eyes remain fixed on Archer. "That was Tristan's blade, wasn't it? The Sword of Mercy, effective against barriers, but sworn to never again take a life. I realized then you would have seen Assassin's weapon when I challenged him on Monday. I suppose that's all you require in order to fashion a replica, isn't it? It might still have fooled me, had not all of Rider's wounds been made by an axe of some sort."
Archer mumbles something under his breath that I can't hear.
The dracolich lands on the rooftop again. No fire this time, though. Instead, I hear talons scrape against the stonework. I guess it's trying to dig its way through to us now? Great.
"Last night was simple by comparison." Lightning flashes alongside Excalibur's edge. "I didn't sense any magic. My Instinct would have detected any sort of mortar fire or remote attack. The only solution is some sort of modern explosive, planted by someone familiar with both the house and Shirou's habits while we were away. You would have had time to dig something up while Rin was in the hospital. I imagine by that point you must have been getting quite frustrated."
"Oh, you have no idea," Archer growls.
"I suppose I wouldn't."
Excalibur glows brighter. Golden particles begin to drift up through the floor.
"And so I ask you once more, Archer." There's a dangerous edge in Saber's voice now. "Why?"
Archer sighs. "Don't suppose there's any chance I could convince you I was acting under Rin's orders?"
"You could not." Saber narrows her eyes coldly.
Archer sighs. "Yeah... I didn't think so.
"But all right." He suddenly jumps to his feet. They face each other, the golden specks floating in the air between them. "If we're really doing this... how about I put it this way. Remember your own wish for the Grail, Saber? The real one?"
Saber shifts her jaw. "You couldn't possibly know --"
"Oh, trust me. I do." Archer stares her in the eye. "So here's my question... what would you do if you didn't need the Grail to get what you wanted? What if it was possible to take a direct approach?"
"But if you... that would mean..." Saber's eyes go wide. "... oh no..."
I'm lost here. Are you lost here?
> i think that's the point
There's a loud crash from down below. An iron door rockets up the stairs and bounces across the floor into the back corner. I see the flash of a familiar red tendril.
Fuck. Shadow's here.
I leap to my feet. Archer immediately puts an arrow into the roof. It explodes and collapses onto the downwards staircase, filling the entrance with rubble. "We're out of time!" he barks. "Saber --"
"On it!" A vortex of light bursts into existence around Saber and the sword, the air swirling around them like a tornado. "Soldier's dream!" she chants. "Hope of the oppressed! My friend! -- I call upon thy power one last time!"
Game plan, game plan, what do I do? Try to get in between Saber and the shadow, I guess? I take two steps in that direction. Then a huge crack in the roof opens up above our heads. The dragon lets out a furious roar. Son of a --
"Rho Aias!" Archer raises his hand. His shield appears over us as the first jet of fire descends. Looks pretty thin in terms of layers, though... he wasn't kidding about being low on juice...
"With thy name, I seal my final prayer!" The aura around Saber intensifies. What's with this in-the-name-of-the-moon crap? She's never had to do that before.
> had to guess
> maybe a password or an unlock code of some sort
> this is kinda her self-destruct
I look anxiously down the stairs. I can already see the shadow oozing through the cracks in the rubble.
"For God, church and country!" Saber roars. "EXCALI -- what?!"
That can't be right. Wait, why's she looking over here --
Someone grabs me from behind, pale arms folding around my chest.
"... dickweasels," I hear Archer mutter as everything disappears into white static.
Yeah, okay... now that I've heard someone else say it, I really don't think it works.
***
The next thing I know, I'm in the sky. Staring down at the city below, my feet dangling over a five-kilometer drop.
"Look, look!" Alt-Caster whispers urgently into my ear. She clutches me to her chest, her white cloak whipping around us. "You're gonna miss it. Any second now --"
She jostles my head in the direction of the island, floating in the distance before us. Just as she does, there's this feeling of void -- a negative pressure, like the universe taking a deep breath...
The tower explodes in a massive cross-shaped burst of gold light, burning the sky with the intensity of a thousand suns. Excalibur rips the entire island into shreds, casting the rubble down onto the skyscrapers below. I hear Alt-Caster laugh with delight as the shockwave washes over us. Like a kid at a fireworks show. It is kinda a neat explosion, I guess.
I swallow as the light fades. "Um, didn't Saber --?" I ask -- or at least I try to. I get a couple thousand meters stuck in my throat midway through.
"Oh, just another puppet," she says dreamily. "Another illusion. I told you about illusions, didn't I? Hush, though. It's not over."
The hell does she mean by that? Reluctantly, I look down at the city. At the massive pile of earth and rubble that landed next to the Center Building, all that's left of the island.
I hear a loud, inhuman shriek from below. It starts above my upper hearing register and descends, building in volume.
The shadow erupts from beneath the rubble. It's huge now, comparable in size to the buildings around it, and it's assumed a vaguely humanoid shape. A giant made of night. As I watch, it takes its first step forward.
"You see?" Alt-Caster giggles. "Do you see it now? He can't be stopped. Won't stop. He's been waiting in the dark for so very long, you see? Plotting and planning and making sure everything's just as perfect as he can. For his Bethlehem. He's ready. Ready to be born.
"Wanna know a secret? You wanna hear his name?"
"... okay?" I squeak.
She leans in closer, her breath tickling my ear. "Aŋra," she whispers. "MAINIIU.
"Okay, I love you! Buh-bye!" she says cheerfully. And drops me.
Holy hell. That was intense. I guess this is the grim dark horror loop, huh? I'm a little curious about the Excalibur chant, though - it doesn't sound like the usual one in FGO I'm familiar with. Was it in the anime? Also, I ran Alt-Caster's Greek through Google Translate but all i got was a bunch of nonsense words.
Mirvein
A Tea-Fueled Monstrosity.
- Location
- In the middle of nowhere.
Artoria Breaks her Noble Phantasm.
- Location
- Out there
Hence, Excalibomb.
Anyway, looks like one of the plot point got revealed. Now on top of Zouken, Goldie and the priest, there's the witch, and finally the root of all evil. Very nice.
- Location
- Academy City
- Pronouns
- They
Man, poor saber. Never has the mana she needs to go all and have it work.
- Location
- USA
Sorta, yeah.
The chant's new / something I came up with. I figured Artoria having some sort of unlock code for this move would make sense. I don't know if it necessarily destroys Excalibur itself -- not sure if that's even possible -- but it at the very least kills the wielder. Definitely not something you want to commit to by accident.
Side note: you'll notice that Artoria seems to contradict what she said in Fate/Zero, where she indicated she had to have two hands, period end, in order to use Excalibur at all. The answer, of course, is that she was in a highly populated area at the time, so using this move wasn't even close to an option for her. And given her... less-than-charitable views of Kiritsugu and his choice in tactics, I could also see her holding back this particular information from him.
- Location
- USA
Most of it's mangled ancient Greek. You might have more luck just directly Googling some of the individual words.
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
Google Translate is basically useless for more than two words at a time in almost any language, especially Latin, Greek, and non-Indo-European languages. I know this very well.