Okeanos Part IV
Ritsuka
The rains that had swept over the ship overnight had passed, the clouds seemingly evaporating in minutes after the rains had stopped. Ritsuka actually found it slightly disconcerting how quickly they had disappeared.
And Tell had spotted land.
"Navigator!" Ching Shih's voice came from the helm, "Is that our island?"
Fionn smiled serenely. "It is, Captain."
"Good."
Ritsuka couldn't help but agree. Even if things weren't as hectic as they had been in other Singularities, the last few days had provided a challenge in their own way. Up until now, it had mostly been him and Mash versus the world, as it were; there had been a hundred fires, and they were the only ones able to put it out. Here, it was very much the opposite: instead of having too much to do and not enough hands to go around...
"~
But then someone shouted, 'Hey I think that's Guam~'"
… it was more like herding cats.
Adam had seemed to recover well enough; he and Ko had been attempting to reverse-engineer some song Ritsuka had never heard of, but the few scattered lyrics they had pieced together had been very well received by the other members of their group.
Near the bow of the ship, Smith-sensei and Cu were engaged in some sort of discussion - Ritsuka wasn't sure what exactly they were talking about, but the academic was gesticulating wildly while the Celt watched in amusement.
Abigail leaned over the ship's railing and waved at a passing pod of dolphins. She'd changed from her black wool dress into a lighter one of white cotton, richly embroidered around the collar with what looked to be gold thread and pearls, though Ritsuka couldn't be sure. Apparently, Bennett had used Smith's Item Creation to procure it - and severely overpaid. Ritsuka did notice that despite Abigail's clear enthusiasm, she was fidgeting and prodding at the dress as though uncomfortable with it in some way. From past experience with cheap school uniforms, he could tell her discomfort wasn't with the fabric itself. Or… actually wait, maybe it was, he realized. Just in the opposite direction: it was
too nice, perhaps.
More telling was that she remained near her Master, who kept peeking at her with an expression Ritsuka couldn't quite place whenever she wasn't looking. Something had mended that rift, at least partly. Given his own experiences, he'd put money on the 'dream cycle' as the culprit.
The wood of the stairway behind Ritsuka creaked, and he turned around, half-expecting Mash to greet him. But to his surprise, it was actually Jacob, whose normally ghost-like pallor had actually had some color return to it.
His concern must have shown on his face, because the man smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. "I'm fine, surprisingly."
This didn't do much to assuage Ritsuka's fears. "Are you sure you should be moving around? Roman said that you should be using as little energy as possible."
"Sitting around like a sack of potatoes isn't helpful either." He shrugged. "The command seals mean I'm not using up my od, heck, best guess is that I'm actually recovering by staying on top of the refueling."
"Yeah, no, that's not how it works."
Bennett had apparently noticed his... friend? (at times Ritsuka had to wonder) ascending to the main deck. And, as was becoming customary, he had to offer his opinion.
"Topping up with a command seal doesn't just
eliminate the drain on you," Bennett explained with a frown. "If you plug an external battery into your phone, your phone doesn't magically
stop using its battery. You should still be getting drained, at least a
little bit, and that you aren't is-"
"-oh!" Smith remarked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. "That must mean my Territory is setting up properly. Splendid." Nodding in satisfaction, the man appeared ready to return to his prior argument with Cu before Jacob held up a hand.
"Pardon. Could you elaborate on that one?"
"Ah, well… I am a Caster, as you know. We do have that ability." The Servant appeared befuddled by the question, even though he'd been the one that had actually raised the issue at hand.
There was a slight twitch to Jacob's cheek. "Ah, yes, but… why would your Territory affect
this?"
Smith blinked. In the distance, Ritsuka saw Adam get up and walk over to the rest of them. The Master and Servant stared at each other briefly, before the tall Scot's cheeks reddened.
"... And you're quite sure?" he asked.
Adam nodded.
"... Ah." Smith appeared genuinely apologetic. "I could have sworn that I'd explained all this the other day. At least, I meant to. I certainly thought about explaining."
"Get on with it," Bennett groused. For once, Ritsuka found himself in agreement.
"Oh! Right - I still haven't. Dear me, where is my head today? Territory, in the context of the Caster class, is commonly understood to be a land-area in which a Servant exerts dominion. But the merely physical is, I think you will all agree, quite the antithesis of the class's ethos. It is the understanding and use of the metaphorical and the abstract which differentiates a Caster from the other six - or seven, possibly more - classes."
Ritsuka hadn't had much time to really get into the details of the classes in a philosophical way; most of his concerns had been focused on how their powers worked so he could avoid getting killed, so this was fascinating in its own way. But as Smith-san gestured with a hand, leaning on his cane, the youngest of the Masters could only wonder where this was headed.
"As Servants, we are formed from mana and brought forth from the Throne, yet are sustained by the energy flow taken from our mortal Masters. Through the union of human history and mystic ritual, we are therefore permitted an existence capable of affecting the mortal world without mortal limitations. Under ideal circumstances, in fact, our actions may in fact enable our Masters to perform such deeds as to grant them access to the Throne of Heroes itself-"
"A circular flow," Adam finished for him, head nodding frantically, his words coming with little breath between them. "Your 'Territory' - you're improving the energy flows between Masters and Servants - the economy between us. But you're extending it to the others… because we're already actively collaborating with each other."
The thickly-built man beamed. "Quite so, quite so," he dipped his head. "The very nature of this 'class-container' system leads naturally to a division of responsibilities within a group according to their specialisation-"
"-which leads to greater productivity. Or in this case, a positive-sum game." Smith looked a tad befuddled at Adam's final phrase, but the two of them seemed to understand each other well enough. As for Ritsuka?
He was lost.
"Pardon me Adam-san, Smith-sensei," Ritsuka said, raising his hand briefly before remembering that although he stood before a professor, he wasn't in a classroom. "But I do not understand the terms you used. Could you maybe explain in less… ano, complex? Yes, less complex terms?"
"Right," Adam coughed nervously, the man clearly somewhat embarrassed at all the attention now directed at him. "Smith, please correct me if I've got any point wrong. But basically - Smith's making us more efficient at using our mana. And, if his analogy holds, he can also allow us to move some of the energy we're using to sustain our Servants into another willing Servant."
"Correct in every particular," Smith confirmed. "Though I was quite sure I had informed someone of this. I certainly intended to… unless it truly had slipped my mind…."
"You hadn't," Bennett interjected.
"... huh." Jacob muttered. "An economy of mana."
A thoughtful frown crossed Ritsuka's face; it would certainly explain why some of them weren't slowly dying due to od depletion. Which was a weight off of his mind as to whether they would be dying on his watch.
However, a tactical concern crossed his mind, "Ano, Smith-sensei, could the mana from a Command Seal be introduced to this… economy?"
Smith tapped the side of his nose, beaming at the young man. "Quite so, quite so! Naturally, much like how water seeks the lowest point, any mana introduced would be absorbed by the one most in need of its use as well."
"We must all follow the Walrus Law," Adam cackled.
"... the what?" Bennett asked with a slight tilt to his head. One which, Ritsuka noted, his Servant copied in the other direction.
Jacob held up a hand. "Seconded."
"...Thirded?" Ritsuka had to follow up.
"...economics joke," Adam admitted. "It's basically the market clearing condition."
Ritsuka was relieved that nobody else seemed to have understood what the brown-skinned man was saying.
"I
repeat," Bennett said flatly. "The
what?"
"...basically in this context, the supply of mana must equal the demand for mana. Honestly, it's not that funny because the Walras Law applies to multiple markets rather than an aggregate…" the man sighed. "It would have killed at the Christmas party, alright?"
"You realize," the man's fiancée called from across the deck, sliding a finger down the frets of her guitar to punctuate her words, "this is the tax exacted upon you for all those times you made Fate references he didn't get, right?"
A short bark of laughter escaped Jacob and Adam, while Bennett instead let out a pained groan, covering his face with his hands.
Anticipating another derail, Ritsuka was happy when da Vinci's voice broke in over the comms, "Well, such a territory would explain why we thought Adam had Circuits–"
"Movement." All discussion stopped when William Tell's voice drifted down from the crow's nest, silencing everyone down below. "Off the starboard bow. That islet-"
"W-what!? Hang on, scanning the area," Dr. Roman said, a sudden edge to his tone. "Okay, it's… there! We're detecting multiple Spirit Origins in that direction, including—"
The now-familiar
whoomph of air from an Archer releasing their projectiles buffeted the group on the ship's deck, and through Tell's eyes, Ritsuka saw the man's shot strike a swiftly-falling object. It slowed the inbound projectile, and it was only as his Caster's follow-up burst of magic destroyed it that Ritsuka identified the incoming attack as a
boulder, thrown their way with prodigious strength.
"Mash!" Ritsuka called.
"Of course," Mash said, taking position closer to the boulder's trajectory, putting herself between the Masters and any further offensives. He kept some of his attention on what he could get from Tell and Cu, but the majority of his attention was now fixed on his fellow Masters.
"Lancer," Ko said, shoving the guitar into her Servant's hands and stalking over to the rest of the group with a furrowed brow, "stow this somewhere it won't break unless the boat sinks and return to my side immediately."
Before she was even done speaking, Fionn was off.
Adam, his shoulders slumped, was already trudging towards the racks of muskets. Jacob's lips had pressed into a thin line, face starkly pale as he continued to stare at where the boulder had come from, his hand digging into his chest.
And at last, his eyes came to Bennett, who had already pulled his Servant in close, his face already falling in resignation.
"Dr. Roman and da Vinci are confirming, but we are under attack by enemy Servants. With what you have shared, if it is—"
"Scans have confirmed," da Vinci's voice came over the comms. "It's the Argonauts. And we're reading a Berserker—the signature is a near-perfect match to Heracles."
Ritsuka stiffened, and saw the others shift and pale in varying ways. Bennett had grabbed the nearest solid object, clinging tight enough that his knuckles had gone white. Jacob drew himself up, jaw clenching as he clearly forced his breathing to slow, glancing at a spot on deck. Adam, in the middle of loading, slammed the ramrod of the weapon down the barrel with far more force than he had previously. When he glanced at Ko, Ritsuka found she was already watching him, her eyes wider than he'd ever seen them before, her lips set in a thin line.
"We need everybody helping for this." Ritsuka pointed at the storeroom. "Arm up. Everybody fights here. No exceptions."
As though on cue, Fionn emerged from below decks - minus the guitar, but plus a weapon Ritsuka would have called a naginata if it weren't Chinese. Manifesting his own spear, he handed the polearm to his Master and stepped back.
"Thank you," she said softly, testing the weapon's heft with a surprisingly well-executed spin that nonetheless came within less than half a meter of accidentally nicking Ritsuka in the arm, before bringing it to rest on her shoulder.
"Okay,
no," Adam said with considerably more heat than Ritsuka had heard from him before, crossing the deck in two quick strides. "Dear, you can barely
see-"
"I can see," she retorted, "it just hurts to."
"- you are not fighting Hercules!"
"You didn't have a problem with me fighting when I stabbed a man in the neck right in front of you yesterday!" she snapped.
Adam let out a strangled cry of concern and wrapped his arms around his fiancée. "Wh- if I had seen it I might have!"
"It appears your concerns about vision problems were misdirected," Fionn remarked.
"Oh piss off, ghost," Adam snapped.
"Senpai," Mash murmured, to which he nodded. He saw it too; he needed to get a handle on this,
quickly.
"That's
enough!" Ritsuka yelled. He didn't like to raise his voice; it brought him to a place he didn't like, mentally. But much as he would like to deny it, the efficacy of the short, concise shout was impossible to ignore. Everybody turned to him, expressions expectant as they waited for him to give commands. Hopeful, even. "We do not have time for you to squabble. We are under attack, and unless you have a better plan, you need to listen!"
"Incoming." Tell's voice again carried from the crow's nest, moments before the
whoomp of his projectiles breaking the sound barrier. Three quarrels struck Heracles' second boulder within moments of each other, shattering it into pieces for Cu to dispose of with his magic. Some debris remained, tumbling down towards them on the ship, but Mash slapped it aside with almost contemptuous ease. Seeing her now as compared to when they began… it would have brought a smile to his face, if not for the severity of the position.
In the back of his mind, Ritsuka could feel Cu suddenly pull hard on his mana reserves - a series of
Kenaz runes blossoming into existence and shattering just as quickly. Behind one of the boulders Tell had been forced to let the others handle, a focused beam of pale cerulean was lancing towards a tunnel visioning Adam -
"Mash!" Ritsuka's intent was already through the bond before he'd even finished calling her name. But his Shielder was on the other side of the ship, as a comet threatened to take out the center mast - and the crow's nest that allowed Tell to act as counter-sniper.
"Lord Chaldeas!"
"Saber-!" The armored servant was already materialized before their master finished the call, "The boulder-!"
The knight slammed their blade into the stone with a crash and turned into the oncoming bolt of blue light, the magical attack slamming into their pauldron and partially melting the armor. The resulting shockwave knocked Adam over, his musket spinning over the side of the ship. Jacob grimaced, a vein in his neck bulging, his lips tinged blue.
Looking over to the others, they weren't fairing much better. The other Masters were trying to coordinate--
This wasn't going to work, Ritsuka realized. Their current positions meant the crew of the Argo was free to barrage his group with as much fire as they liked, without much fear of reprisal, and his own comparatively lower firepower at range was being mercilessly taken advantage of. They needed to get in closer, before the barrage depleted his comrades' limited resources. He needed a plan. But to make that, he needed to know what he was up against—or rather, in this case
who.
"Mash, Doctor, da Vinci." He paused, glancing to the side; there
was one more source available to him, wasn't there? "Bennett-san." Bennett's breath hitched in his throat, but the man did stand up straighter on hearing his name, and though it wasn't relief, he seemed a tad more… at ease, perhaps? Now that he had an actual
role, Ritsuka supposed. "The Argonauts. What do we know?"
"Every Argonaut is a Servant at least on the level of William Tell," da Vinci began, her voice calm and level, "even the lesser-known ones. Heracles is obviously the biggest threat, but he's not the only one."
"And there's a Medea-chan on that ship," Ritsuka grimaced, an all-too familiar runic array faintly visible from their position.
"If you see a white or black coat with overlong sleeves and a floating snake-staff, prioritize over Heracles. That's Asclepius, take out the healer first or they'll keep getting back up," Bennett offered. "Harp means Orpheus, do not let him get close, I'm pretty sure his music's a mind-whammy. Pair of blondes, boy and girl, that's Castor and Pollux. If they show, send Fionn for them; until
he takes a mortal wound,
she is invulnerable, and it was a spear wound in their legend."
More projectiles peppered the sky, stones and spears and spells alike, only to be intercepted by their Servants, the action causing both Jacob and Ko to wince. Right, that was under control for now. "Captain Ching, can we outrun them?"
"
Gai wu. We're almost in irons and they've got oars. So unless one of you wants to get out and push? No." The Rider grimaced as she spun the wheel hard right, the ship turning faster than a vehicle its size had any right to as a vibrant burst of magic plunged down into the water ahead of where its bow had pointed. "I will try to get us out of irons, but the winds are against us."
"Then we'll have to fight," Ritsuka surmised.
"If we can take down Heracles," Jacob panted, hand digging into his uniform. "We may be able to get them to back off?"
"Cu, Tell, keep us covered. Jacob, Ko, we'll need your Servants." Ko nodded sharply, and Jacob gave a thumbs up. "Caster, please dissipate to save power; Adam - charge up Saber and Lancer."
Another speck in the sky began to grow and Mash surged forward. Ritsuka ignored it, she would handle it.
"Keep your last command seal to charge up anyone that's running low. Ko, be ready to dump them into Fionn, keep an eye out and spot for him." He paused at the crash of the boulder against Mash's shield, "When they get closer, we'll stay near Mash so she can defend. Jacob, can Saber stall Heracles?"
"They–"
A familiar roar became audible, fading into existence. For once, it didn't bring relief. Ritsuka snapped, "Jacob-!"
The knight was already moving as the American called out, "Saber-!"
Ritsuka grabbed the arms of Bennett and Ko, neither of whom had moved as quickly as he'd wanted them to; Ko's mouth was frozen in a grit-toothed grin, her eyes locked on the incoming Servant, while Bennett had the arm Ritsuka hadn't grabbed holding Abigail tightly to his side. He pulled them as far away from Heracles as he could on the confined spaces of the deck, closer to Mash and Ching Shih at the bow. Adam had fallen to the floor, hands scrabbling to find purchase on the deck.
Like a mountain of anger and rage, the son of Zeus was on the deck. His roar was like thunder, the ship itself quaking beneath them. Saber drew their sword back, and Jacob held up his hand even as he staggered alongside the other masters.
"Ada-" Ritsuka started to shout.
Twin flares of red light erupted from Adam's left hand, and the ruined pauldron in Saber's armor fixed itself in a flash of Spiritrons, crackles of crimson lightning arcing across the Servant's blade. At their side, his fiancée's Lancer's spear glowed a soft blue-white, an unfelt wind blowing through his long blonde hair, his mantle billowing around him.
Heracles charged, Saber meeting his blow head on with a teeth jarring sword strike. Two strikes in, Ritsuka was certain that Saber could at least stall the Berserker. A glance as he grabbed Jacob's sleeve, pulling the man further away from the fighting even as he called out to the other Masters, "Take cover!"
As the others scrambled behind crates or what cover they could find, Jacob limped alongside him.
"Ritsuka–" Glancing over at the mention of his name, Chaldea's Master found the other Master struggling to stay upright under the tumult of the battle, his eyes bloodshot, and one of his hands all but burrowed into his chest. "Can Tell shoot the sword out of his hands?"
That brought Ritsuka's thoughts up short, if just for a moment as he tried to understand the reasoning behind the question, "... why?"
"Saber's Phantasm–" A shockwave sent the ship shaking, their balance nearly giving out. Heat splashed across their skin as magic blasts exploded around the ship. "It can take a lot of lives, but if he blocks–"
"Right." Mind already whirring, Ritsuka looked back out to the deck of the ship, the knight freely trading blows with the grey giant. Their attacks were ineffective, and Heracles was almost exclusively focused on Saber… "Cu! Set up! Mash, Lancer, can you guard the ship-?"
A briefly raised hand was all he got from Fionn before the man pulled a Sailor Neptune, torrential spirals of water surging around him just in time to disperse a barrage of pink energy bolts. Mash gave Ritsuka a simple, grim nod, and she and the Lancer moved to the opposite ends of the ship.
That quick acknowledgement was all Ritsuka needed even as he maneuvered to keep as much space between himself and the dueling Servants as he could. "Do it! Saber, stall him! Tell, set him up!"
Sparks flew as a chorus of acknowledgements met the orders, Saber's blade grinding against the slab of stone that was Heracles' weapon.
Hot stone and splinters flew as the two clashed, a red-hot shard glancing against Ritsuka's uniform even as he moved to keep an eye on them as well as the approaching Argo. The fight couldn't go on too long, even now he could see both Jacob and Ko starting to flag from the efforts their Servants were going through. The sun was on its way down, but unfortunately it was on the other side of them from the Argo, so they couldn't use that as a way to blind them and reduce their accuracy.
The blades of the two titans locked for a moment, an angry roar escaping
both of them as Saber levered their blade one way and then shifted their footing–
'Master!' Cu's voice rang over the link.
"Saber!" Ritsuka snapped out, the commands clipped. There wasn't enough time for him to explain; he had to trust that they'd know what to do, "Tell!"
With a grinding screech, Saber threw both of their locked weapons upward, unbalancing themself as well as Heracles, who roared again.
"Apfel Schießen!"
Two resounding shots slammed into the tip of the massive slab of stone in the giant's hands like thunder, sending it spiraling out of Heracles' hand-
"Cu!"
Flames erupted across the deck even as Saber leapt backwards, a massive hand of straw enveloping the son of Zeus and lifting the struggling demigod high-!
"Wicker Man!"
"Jacob! Saber!"
"Right!" The pair chorused in harsh unison, Saber leaping into position and the seals on the back of the pale man's hand burning bright. Red lightning exploded into existence, the electric buzz of power in Ritsuka's ears and dancing across his skin as Saber's helmet dropped, their sword held high.
A blonde young woman was underneath the helmet, a vicious grin on her oddly-familiar face, her tightly bound hair tumbling in the vortex of her own power. Wicker Man threw Heracles into its cage even as the Servant roared.
"Captain! Get the Argo in line with Sabers attack!"
"By my command seal-!" out of the corner of his eye, Ritsuka could see the veins bulging on Jacob's face and arm, eyes bloodshot, with a fierce grin to match his Servants in spite of his obvious pain. Something to worry about later. The enemy ship had closed in the intervening time, magic flying and its crew visible from the deck, but even the hard turn Ching Shih was making wasn't going to get them in line.
"Fionn!" Ko roared raggedly, snapping off a command seal. "The Argo! Put 'em where Saber wants 'em!"
"Clarent–!" Saber's voice was harsh even as power bellowed from her, the column of crimson power stabbing the sky and with the descending sun, seeming to darken the very heavens.
"Mac an Luin!"
Heracles threw himself around within the Wicker Man, but the flames were engulfing it as it wobbled in place, and Jacob's voice was ragged as he shouted, "–kill Heracles as many times as you can in a single strike!"
"Blood–!"
Ritsuka could see the ocean itself rise to move the Argo behind Wicker Man, and as a multicolored mass of prana blasted from Jacob's outstretched hand to envelop and be absorbed by Saber, Ritsuka himself shouted, "Cu! Trigger Wickerman at the same instant! By my Command Seal!"
"ARTHAAAAAAAAA!"
The crackling, screaming pillar of power and death was brought down with Saber's blade even as Wicker Man itself fell, bits of its structure already ripped apart by Heracles' efforts.
Hands raised, Ritsuka protected his face from the sheer pressure of the attack, physical and otherwise as Wicker Man was consumed in the brilliant destruction. Ching Shih's ship shook beneath their feet, the Argo's sails obliterated in an instant even as a barrier protected the main ship.
The roar of wind and energies was nearly all consuming as even as the Noble Phantasm tapered off, the flames of Wicker Man obscuring sight even more so than the blinding, setting sun behind the Argo. Saber's crimson attack streaking into the horizon and seeming to stain the sky itself red with the blood of battle.
Ritsuka wasn't sure who said it over the ringing of his ears, but he shared the sentiment.
"Please let that be enough."
Bennett
It wasn't.
Deep in his heart of hearts, he
knew it wasn't enough. This wasn't Saber Alter hooked up to a Grail, this was Mordred—and wasn't
that a nasty surprise, feeling Secret of Pedigree in action, learning just how deep the Phantasm's mental hooks bit—running on the magical equivalent of a hand-cranked generator. Powerful as the Knight of Rebellion was, the lack of a capable Master all but guaranteed that Heracles wouldn't fall.
As the dust cleared, the mighty Berserker's corpse came alight from within, an ugly, bloody glow piercing the dusk and igniting some of the
Argo's broken boards. His ragged and scorched flesh bubbled, steaming, a new arm and leg growing back as Heracles pulled himself upright and
roared.
The sonic wave crashed into Bennett, forcing him to stagger back and hold onto the ship's railing just to stay upright, his other arm holding Abigail steady beside him. The others weren't so lucky: Ritsuka barely stayed upright due to Mash holding him steady. Indy and Ko had fallen to the deck, her polearm not even useful as a crutch as she tried and failed to keep them both upright. Dory leaned back against the center mast, barely pulling himself back to his feet. Mordred had already returned to spirit form, but the damage was done: Dory looked like death warmed over-
A dull growl from Heracles ripped Bennett's attention straight back to the monster of a man, who had turned towards their ship. Turned towards
Dory, whose Saber had taken so many of his lives in one blow.
The Berserker reached down and gripped the makeshift 'hilt' of his massive stone axe-sword, ripping it free from where it had been embedded in the hull of the
Argo with no effort, and advanced on their ship. The water froze beneath his feet as he strode toward them;
Medea's work, some distant part of Bennett numbly noted.
It was a slow, inexorable march, and Bennett realized it was because
they had nothing left.
And despite his madness, Heracles
knew.
"Tell-san!" Ritsuka yelled, pointing down at Heracles.
"
Apfel Schießen!" For the second time that day, William Tell released his Noble Phantasm, the unfailing shot that
will hit the target. The bolt flew towards Heracles, unerring, unwavering. It struck the Berserker in the eye—
It shattered.
The Son of Zeus did not blink. He did not pause. He did not flinch. He paid absolutely no mind to the
Released First Arrow of Faith, because even at its strongest, it could not pierce the
God Hand.
This was the overwhelming might of the greatest hero of Ancient Greece, even in what was likely his
weakest class.
Bennett looked towards Ritsuka, hoping beyond all hope that the Last Master of Chaldea had a
plan. Something, anything from that absurd wellspring of grit he had available to him. And in doing so, he made the fatal mistake: he took his eyes off of his enemy.
A whisper of a breeze ran through his hair, and when his eyes returned to Heracles' approach, he saw nothing. A moment later, he registered the sound of something landing on the ship's deck. Bennett's heart skipped a beat, and he turned.
"Saber-!" Dory pushed off of the mast, his pale skin a splotchy mess of sweat and feverish red as he staggered back, ragged desperation in his voice. "Stall him! Mash!
Fionn!"
Heracles stood on the deck of the ship, approaching the Master of the Servant that had so gravely wounded him. He loomed over Dory, the promise of death in his every movement even as Mordred began to reappear in golden light.
The Demi-Servant darted forward, interposing herself between Heracles and Dory—
"Lord—!"
The Berserker's sword crashed down. Heracles' next blow struck the Shielder aside with contemptuous ease. Mordred still hadn't reformed—!
Before any of them could act, Heracles brought his sword around again—
His vision fuzzed as the world listed sideways and his leg gave out from under him. Bennett fell to the deck, suddenly unable to stay upright as dark fuzz crept in from the corners of his eyes. He pushed himself up, and the world came back into focus, even as it tried to spin in clockwise motion.
Heracles' sword was caught in a downswing, shuddering and shaking as the Berserker tried, and
failed, to free it.
Something held it in place, an eerie oil-slick stain on the surface of reality that was wrong, wrongwrongwrong
wrongwrongwrong—
The Berserker howled with rage and ripped his sword free, carving through whatever unknowable nothingness stayed his killing blow. He turned towards Bennett - no. Not him.
One arm extended, her hand shaking, Abigail stared up at the Son of Zeus. Berserker and Foreigner met eyes.
"Ygnaiih," Abigail murmured.
Bennett wanted to cry out, to tell her to stop. But even as he tried, the world swam and he hit the deck again, felt the trail of something wet sliding down his face. His knee, his bad knee, spasmed and froze up as a horrific sensation he could only compare to metal spike, so cold it burned, stabbed through the joint, spasming and twitching beneath him.
"Ygnaiih, thflthkh'ngha. O silver key held in my hands, come forth from nothingness, and open the lock..."
Reality
shredded as a great keyhole carved itself into the space beside Heracles, the outlined air rippling with that soap-bubble shimmer. Then another keyhole emerged, and another, and another. They caged the Berserker in, cutting off every possible avenue of escape. Wherever Heracles looked, the keyholes hovered, waiting.
Whispering. His skull felt tight against his brain, every word squeezing harder and harder until he could hardly
think over the sound of his own pulse, roaring painfully in his ears.
"Oh Father, my God—"
A spike of molten agony lanced through his eyes, and half of the world went dark, while the other fuzzed out into an incomprehensible mess. Panic gripped at his heart, and for a second he forgot to breathe. He couldn't see.
He couldn't see. The pain was still there, intensifying, twisting his innards into knots as the taste of copper filled his mouth. But all of that was secondary to the fact that
he couldn't see.
Heracles roared and thrashed, dashing his blade against the keyholes; he could hear it, that strange echoing
nothingness where the demigod's blade impacted the tears in reality. But even that din could not drown out the Foreigner's rising volume as she intoned, "-beyond the sleep of roses, and arrive at the final gate!"
As one, every keyhole came alight, their interiors blazing bright and brilliant. Even with his fading sight, no matter where Bennett looked, there was no escaping it. Even as the world faded into light, even as Heracles howled a sound no human throat should make, he could not stop from being drawn in, falling, sinking—
The expanse played out before him, countless points of light glimmering in the distance. As far as the eye could see, stars shone in the darkness, endless, unceasing, neverending-
-the vault of the heavens shifted, warping suddenly, coiling around him. The stars spun in an impossible orbit, the cosmos themselves turning, searching. Deepest black writhed and twisted, resolving into a shape that he could not deny. He gazed long into this abyss transfixed mesmerized-
-and staring back at him was a single baleful blue eye growing larger and larger as it approached chasing away the hungering cold of the void replacing it with a heat that threatened to sear his very soul it stared and he could not look away could not avert his gaze from it from the endless mouths set into its surface screaming their burning hate into the cosmos-
-and then he was falling, falling into that endless blue, further and further away from the-
"Qliphoth Rhizome."
Spencer
For the first time in his life, he understood why the cries of Heracles were rendered as tiny black boxes. The sound was indescribable.
The ship shook and shuddered when Saber released their Noble Phantasm, red light seeping in through the gaps in the ceiling above him. He balled his fists and he closed his eyes and did his level best to just
breath. A flash of memory, a piece of advice learned in high school from an online comedy web series. What do you do if you're about to die? You live... for just a little while longer. Moments later, another roar from Heracles made him wince and hope really hard he wasn't about to die.
A roar that was suddenly and unexpectedly cut off.
Silence filled the cabin as Spencer got his breathing under control. No, not silence. He could still hear the sound of the waves crashing against the hull, the creaking of the ship as it drifted in the water.
And nothing else.
"So uh," he said shakily, "did we win?"
The only answer he received were three knocks against the closed door of the cabin, each knock fainter than the last. Each knock
lower than the last.
And there was nothing from Ching Shih.
He sighed, gritted his teeth, and rolled out of the bed, landing on the floor with a thump. "Ow," he muttered. His hands were numb, and he couldn't properly get his legs under him. He hadn't realized it had gotten this bad. Up until now it had just been pins and needles, the tips of his fingers and toes going numb. Ching Shih had been incredibly reluctant to let loose after the first use of her ship's weapons.
I hadn't even used the safeword, Spencer thought to himself.
He got to the door the only way he could. A crawling shuffle that took a full minute longer than it should have.
The knocks didn't repeat.
His hand slipped off the knob of the door on the first try, and he fell to the ground, biting back several swears. He wasn't a masochist, flogging was not his thing, and he fully believed every threat his servant had delivered up to this point.
"Alright, we can do this. We can open a door." He rolled onto his stomach and managed to get to a kneeling position using the door itself to lean against and stabilize. He got a hand on the knob. He dug in and twisted. The door clicked open, just barely.
"Oh son of a-" he gasped as the thing he was leaning against stopped providing support.
There was no one there.
He screwed his eyes shut as a white haze drifted across his vision, a spike of pain flaring behind his eyes. The pain receded just a little, and he blinked the tears out of his eyes, but when he opened them it was gone, and for all he knew it had never been there in the first place.
He shook his head. Commentary took effort, and he needed to get above deck. Mumbling sarcastically could wait until he knew what the hell was going on. The railing at the side of the stairs helped him get to the deck above in a manner slightly less pathetic than when he'd first started. Every step was a labor, but it was a manageable one. He was almost able to crawl as the circulation got back into his legs, though the persistent sense of pins and needles refused to subside.
It took moments for his eyes to adjust to the light of above decks, and what he saw explained… nothing.
Most of the group had collapsed to the deck like puppets whose strings had been cut; Toby was closest to him, and he had all of half a second to process that fact before he vanished in a rainbow strobe of light.
Dory was the next closest to him, and he seemed to be trying to finger paint on the deck.
"Dory? Dory, my man, you okay?" he asked, but didn't get anything in the manner of an actual response. His friend was fixated on his task, and even a nudge of the shoulder wouldn't dissuade him.
Ko lay on her side in the shade, hugging her knees to her chest and muttering as Fionn hovered over her, brushing her hair out of her face. So they were fine and-
Wait.
He looked back at Dory.
That wasn't paint that wasn't paint that wasn't paint-
"He's fine. He's gonna be fine. We're all going to be fine. Everything is fine."
'Everything is fine' he repeated to himself.
Floating nearby was the other ship, drifting away without any apparent guidance or sign of activity. The one person on the deck who seemed cognizant was Fionn, who Spencer managed to get an entire second of eye contact out of before he smiled wearily and vanished.
"What the ffffflip happened here?" Spencer asked, looking around for his servant.
"... oh hell…" he muttered, as he looked at the back of his left hand. "Ching Shih, Materialize."
A seal vanished in a flash of red light, and his servant manifested, unconscious and slumped against the ship's wheel. A fresh wave of exhaustion swept over him, and he immediately regretted it as he found himself on his knees, his nerves screaming.
He looked at his hand again, a single seal remaining. He considered for a moment, if it was worth the risk to use it to make her wake up.
"I am the girl who arranges the blocks," Ko announced abruptly, followed by a giggle that made his stomach twist even before he heard it taper off into a sob.
Spencer stared at Ko for a solid ten seconds before he was able to compose himself again. "Oh you can keep that…" he whispered under his breath.
He looked back over the deck, Dory scribbling and muttering.
He grabbed hold of the ship's wheel instead, and began to spin it in an attempt to get the ship pointed
away. The only thought on his mind was creating distance. It didn't matter where they were going, as long as it was far away from here.
"Good idea, but you'll need to trim the sails if-"
Spencer screamed as Fionn's voice echoed in his ear. "Don't
do that!"
The only reply he received was Fionn's laughter.
