Two Minutes Ago
"Hey, you."
The stranger looks over his shoulder, long white hair flowing in the wind and glistening in the slight beam of moonlight peeking into the alleyway. His arms are folded behind his back, straight and confident without fear for the night. "What is the matter, brother?"
Standing on the rooftops overhead, spear held between his shoulders, Cu Chulainn shrugs casually at him. "Not much, just wondering why you're still up. It's pretty late, y'know?" His eyes narrow testily. "Could be dangerous, what with the war on."
The stranger smiles and shakes his head, turning back to the alleyway. "Your concern is appreciated brother, but the moon is full and the night is young. There is no danger for me."
"Riiiiight." The man in blue tilts his head, glancing off to the side. "Nice spear by the way."
He jumps before the rooftop beneath him erupts into spikes, and he lands in the alley beneath with light feet and his spear in hand. He charges forth and stabs forward. The head of Gae Bolg is deflected to the side by the shaft of another lance in the hands of the stranger, and now the truth of his too-pale skin is revealed. Vlad Tepes throws the blow back with a show of force, making a counter-thrust that is easily evaded. "Not bad, Lancer. You saw through me immediately."
"Not hard, you didn't even try to hide," Cu snaps back. "I'd ask what you have planned, but I don't care that much. Consider this respect, one Lancer to another."
In a feat of speed, Cu flickers and appears behind the Impaler, Gae Bolg poised to strike. He thrusts, aimed at his head, but stops just short. A thick wall of stakes, hard as steel and black as night, catches his blow before it connects.
A dozen of those same stakes now fill his chest and legs. Cu feels the blood rising in his throat and forces it back where it belongs. Even so, thin trails dribble out of the corners of his mouth.
"A flanking attack, Lancer?" asks the Impaler in haunting tones. He laughs, smiling cruelly. "Shame. Anywhere else, and it might have even worked."
Cu laughs. He leaps away with tattered legs, landing atop another building, and physically rips two of the stakes from his thighs. "That's a damn lie and we both know it," says the Hero of Ulster. "C'mon, out with it. Is it automatic? Is there a range limit? Wait, don't tell me… they drink blood for you!" Vlad's expression darkens, and so Cu's smirk grows larger. "Had to try it man, you're a vampire. It's your thing."
"Hmph. You will die screaming, Lancer, pierced by a thousand pikes." Incredibly, his expression changes. "And you've already failed. This is your folly, Lancer!"
The winds intensify. Something is not right. Cu looks up when he realises he hasn't seen the moon's light in a minute or two.
There weren't clouds just a while ago.
Just as he thinks that, a horrible keening noise fills the air. Thousands of black-scaled wyverns, larger and more vicious than the green and brown ones they've faced thus far, dive down through the clouds and onto the city. There is little warning he can give, and in seconds the city is already under attack. Orleans is already starting to burn again.
"Wow. All this, just for us?" Cu growls, half-smiling, half-scowling. "You shouldn't have; we were going to come to you!"
"Ah, but you are visitors to my land! I would be remiss as a host if I did not come to collect you!" Vlad leaps onto the rooftop across from him, separated only by the alley, and Cu jumps back instinctively. Once more, where he stood now erupts a massive bramble of stakes, as large as he is. "Consider this hospitality, that I would end your suffering quickly!"
"Yeah, not interested! You'll need more than some bloody wood to kill me!" Cu rips out another pair of stakes, and the blood flows freely from those massive holes. White bone peeks out through layers of flesh and shredded fabric, but he keeps Gae Bolg pointed at the Impaler all the same. His hypothesis was right. The enemy only has a limited range. "But if you really want to do me a favor, just stand still and think of Romania or whatever!"
"You ask much beyond your station, Lancer!" Vlad summons up stakes around him, and fire them like arrows, or bolts from a cannon. Cu deflects them with ease, like they want to avoid him. But the dense hail of fire continues. "Know your place before a true king!"
"Not interested!" Despite his wounds sapping his strength, with a feat of mana Cu leaps into the air and holds Gae Bolg over his head. This will have to be precise; considering there are still people in these buildings he can't afford to cut loose. Even if it would be much easier. "GO-"
'LANCER! ASSASSIN TOOK RITSUKA!'
The thought, broadcast through the link Masters and Servants share, nearly catches Cu off-guard. But what really gets him is a faint sight. Another Servant, with the same pale skin and a boy over her shoulder, dashing across the inferno of Orleans. With his Master, Ritsuka.
Dammit. He made a mistake after all. Guess he couldn't deal with Dracula as quickly as he thought. His target changes. Cu throws, a perfect toss. "--D DAMMIT!"
His red spear pierces through the air, puncturing through a barrier of sound on its way towards the target, the enemy Assassin. Mere meters from contact, less than seconds to go, dozens of arrows fired simultaneously knock it off course and it embeds itself into a shophouse some hundred or so meters away. Assassin breaks line of sight soon enough, and was already invisible to his servant senses.
He missed. And now she's gotten away with one Master. What a pain in the ass this is becoming.
As he plummets towards the ground, and sees more and more stakes from dozens of directions headed at his direction, Cu calmly makes conversation instead. 'Shielder, I couldn't stop Assassin. Where is Kana?'
'WHAT?! You have to go after--"
He meets the mass of stakes, and simply slides through them. The blessings placed upon him have saved him yet again, and Cu calls his spear to him. It will be needed very, very soon. 'I'm fighting Dracula now, not an option. Where is Kana?'
'S-She's here, but she got bit.'
Anywhere else, at any other time, Cu may have made a joke. But this is no time for jokes. Gae Bolg rips through dozens of buildings and makes towards him even now, but time slows to a crawl when you are in freefall.
Vlad is right before him too, his own spear ready to skewer him. A trio of black wyverns are flying towards him, their maws burning with flame. Yet more arrows are on course to him, most likely from that Atalanta Caster mentioned. And he's still wounded from the last surprise attack.
Yikes, what a fun day.
'Hold on, Lancer, I'm on my way!'
'Stay with Master, Shielder, she's the only one we've got now!'
'But--'
Vlad runs him through in the right shoulder, not far from the heart. A wyvern bites down hard on one of his arms above the elbow. He manages to punch a second as it approaches, but the third is already trying to roast him. Totally surrounded, with no further options to dodge, eight arrows finally pierce him for the first time in memory; five in the arms and three in the throat.
This time, he really coughs up blood. Well, good thing he doesn't need to talk to mind-talk. 'You leave him to me. Protect our Master! I'll come by when I finish up here!"
He hits the ground before Mashu can respond, crushed under Vlad the Impaler and three inbred wyverns.
Now, he thinks, the fight really begins.
Gae Bolg returns at speed. It returns to his swallowed hand, running through an entire wyvern in order to do so. Gurgling blood and filled with impossible strength despite his wounds, Cu Chulainn headbutts a wyvern's skull flat and begins his counterattack.
He doesn't think of his Masters, or his fellow Servants. There's no point in that. He'll just have to trust them to take care of themselves.
----
In the center of Orleans, now a charred ruin filled with snarling beasts and desperate men fighting with pike and cannon, stands Jeanne D'Arc. Though the world burns around her, her armor is pristine and her flag is untouched.
Facing her atop a black wyvern, with tattered clothes and a sword at her hilt, holding up a banner of her own, is Jeanne D'Arc. She sneers maliciously at the Saint while the city burns around them, daring her to attack.
Jeanne does not. They simply lock eyes, daring the other to make the first move.
"...Did you wonder why I didn't burn Orleans?" The fallen Jeanne asks, her voice so familiar and melodious, but twisted by cruelty and sadism. No response. She sneers, and continues speaking. "Did you really think it was some sentiment I had? A little bit of mercy for a city that adopted me, tried to save me maybe, even though they failed?"
Jeanne says nothing.
"Well, it's not. I don't care. Orleans is dead, Jeanne. To us and to the world. They will not be saved. Nothing can save this city." She laughs, cruel yet beautiful, and shakes her head. "And do you know why, Jeanne? It's because you returned."
Jeanne says nothing still. She looks at her counterpart, never once averting her eyes to look at the carnage around her.
"It was a trap! Of course it was a trap! I knew you'd return, Jeanne, because you promised like a fool. And fools will burn." She laughs again, and still Jeanne says nothing. Her smile dies, replaced by scowls. "What's wrong, Jeanne? Don't you hate me? Don't you despise the wretched woman who is burning all these people?"
Jeanne says nothing.
"ANSWER ME!"
Jeanne lets out a sigh. "There is nothing left to say. They have already been saved."
The Dragon Witch sighs, but then she smiles. "Ah, of course… 'hope'. You have brought them hope. Even when the world is literally burning around them, they believe because you believe. And they believe in you. Isn't that right, Maid of Orleans?"
Jeanne says nothing. She has already said enough.
"Hah, it doesn't matter if you say anything now. I'll just take that from you."
Carmilla arrives then, the Countess of Blood stepping from nowhere with Ritsuka in her arms.
Jeanne's eyes widen. Her breath shortens. Her allies have already been picked apart.
"The other was stubborn," the vampiress says, but there is no irritation in her voice Jeanne can hear. Only breathy excitement. "But I have taken her."
Jeanne smiles cruelly as more pieces fall into place. "Good. I shall take him back to Paris. Finish matters here and return when you are able."
"Of course, Master." Ritsuka is deposited on the wyvern's back, and in an instant Carmilla is gone again. The Witch kicks at her mount, and it readies itself to take flight.
"Hope is an interesting thing, Jeanne," sneers the Dragon Witch. "It inspires such greatness, but dies so easily. But I imagine their Caster can tell you more about it; she is Greek."
Jeanne stands strong, but even her composure starts to crack. "What do you know?"
The Witch laughs. "Everything you do," she replies, her voice a whisper. "I am your shadow, Jeanne, your true self. You cannot deny me. Just as you cannot deny the Witch her Betrayal."
She takes off without another word, shrieking to the skies with a crucial hostage.
Jeanne closes her eyes, and brings her shaking hands together. She has to focus. She has to resolve the current situation in Orleans.
Even as the world falls apart around her, she must have hope. It is the only way.
"O Lord, give me strength…"