Oh dear. Beast's Lair. It really is interesting to revisit a place after so many months... well, more like over a year, really. I was a member back before the old BL caught on fire, but didn't register again until now. Well, that era is no more, though! I am back and my return shall be hailed by artillery barrages!
Well, actually, rather, one artillery barrage. I still had some connections to this place, and it has come to my attention that the memory of my old story fragment about ORT's great love towards Gilgamesh is, in fact, still alive, against all of my expectations. I even saw mentions of it pop up over on Spacebattles where I normally lurk! That was quite a shock, let me tell you.
So, upon some needling by interested parties, and recalling my (slightly delayed) promise to the people from back then that I would continue that story, I have decided to, in fact, come back and write that continuation. Which I did. Well, one chapter of it, along with a slight rewrite of the first snippet to make it bit fresher and a prologue. The refreshed old bit is included for completeness' sake, mostly.
Some parts of it might be of somewhat more serious tone than the initial fragment, but in the end, it is all the same story. The noble tale of ORT's great(ly one-sided) love of the King of Heroes and the trials that await them on their path to happiness.
But, enough talk! Have at thee.
Love.
Love is something that, in one form or another, accompanied mankind throughout all of its history, permeated all of its culture. It was claimed to be a power that could transcend all boundaries; overcome all obstacles.
Nevertheless, when put to the test, all too often love failed to live up to those expectations. It could not protect lovers and families from being torn apart – nor torn apart in the very physical sense of words, nor from others, jealous or bitter for their own reasons, cutting it short. As much as mankind liked to talk about love, both its culture and history were also full of ruins of loves that could have been, or were, but could not overcome the inevitable trials that they had to face.
The world, after all, had little love for its cleverest children, and there was no gentle, guiding hand that would ensure that true love would lead to a happy ending. Some obstacles could not be overcome, no matter how much strength of will and determination one had; they were simply beyond human power, and inevitably led to tragedy.
Yet, in one of the few remaining unexplored parts of the world, in a blighted and forbidden place, a certain strange life persisted; a fiery heart that knew nothing of such obvious truths. It harboured a certain love within; a love so great and pure that it could shake the foundations of the world.
It could not be stopped, for it was never taught how to stop.
It could not be torn away from its lover by violence, for death did not exist for it.
It could not be cut short by deceit, for its purity of purpose was unlike any other, never straying from its path.
It could not be resisted, because there was nothing with the strength to do so.
The World would not interfere with it, for the World was with it.
Deep within South America, a great monster that fell from the sky, a being of fire and crystal slept, dreaming of love.
Those are its tales.
The First Tale
Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, the greatest of Heroic Spirits – at least not counting that ridiculous parody of a knight – hid behind a dumpster like a common criminal, casting nervous glances around, looking for the sight of his monstrous pursuer. It was utterly disgraceful for a King to be lowered to such a lowly state, but given the severity of the situation, he had little choice.
He was fortunate that the recent arrival of one of the monsters that preyed upon the pitiful humans of this era effectively killed the night life within the city of Fuyuki – in the very literal meaning of the word – because his dignity as a king could not take being seen in such a disgraceful state by one of his subjects.
When he was summoned to this world once more, he certainly did not expect things to turn out this way. First, he found out that humankind never recovered from the tragic events that cut his reign short – indeed, what remained of his once proud empire was now little more than a horde of mongrels, barely worthy of being called human in the first place. Then, to see his eternal enemy, that dreadful creature that rained doom upon his kingdom and reduced so much of what he considered precious to ashes, that brought him to ruin in his old life, the only one whom Gilgamesh truly feared – to see that monstrosity in person!
It was hardly a surprise that he ended up at its mercy. For some reason, it refused to take his life, instead using him, the greatest of the kings of men, as little more than its plaything.
So he ran, time and time again, seeking to escape its predations, only to be caught again. He could have fought it, certainly – but even at the height of his power, the difference between them was far too great, and he was not keen on leaving this world just yet.
Now, however, that it was occupied with eating, chewing and devouring the one that thought the city that it chose as its new lair would make a fine buffet, he had a chance. A small one, and one that escaped his grasp many times before, but it was not in the character of the King of Heroes to give up without so much as trying.
However, his hopes were cut short by a tremendous impact; he could only see a green blur before he was on the ground, being grabbed and crushed by the monster’s terrible claws. As his mind slipped and fell into the dark abyss, his last conscious thought was one of regret; if only he remembered to check the walls…
After all, the original form of his nemesis was that of a spider.
***
ORT was happy! It managed to find Goldie after all. He ran away when ORT was occupied feeding on the Dead Apostle – so yummy! – and finding him was such a bother. It was worth it, though – Goldie was the best human, after all. Such a magnificent death ray…
ORT was full of joy when it first found Goldie in this era – humans are such transient creatures, after all, and after it killed him just the first time, ORT was afraid that it would never see him again. But then it went on a field trip and there he was! Jubilations! And he still had that magnificent death ray.
Of course, it was not easy at first! Goldie was so small, like all the humans, so ORT had a lot of problems interacting with him, and he seemed rather distressed due to this. Thankfully, one of the other humans that ORT met on its field trip introduced it to a puppet master of most surprising ability for a human, and she made ORT a very fine puppet; it was even of the opposite gender, since Goldie seemed to prefer those. ORT worked very hard to control it well and now it could interact with Goldie on his own level! He still seemed distressed, though. Humans, unfortunately, were still a mystery.
As ORT’s puppet cuddled Goldie on the ground, she noticed, much to her disappointment, that he was no longer awake. Ah yes, the breathing. ORT found breathing silly – such a bizarre thing, really! – but humans seemed to need it and got broken if they could not do it. Since ORT really did not want Goldie to get broken again, she let him go and stood up. Early on, some of the blood on her could have get on his clothes and make them all messy and sticky, but nowadays she cleaned herself very carefully! Some humans looked at her in unusual ways if she did not. ORT could not understand why – Dead Apostles ate humans, so if ORT ate Dead Apostles, shouldn’t they be happy? But they were not. Humans were so strange.
She picked Goldie up and brought him back to the lair – ah yes, “house”! – of the other fun human that she met. Apparently, he and Goldie had a history together! Goldie did not want to talk about it, though, and ORT was too nice to eat it out of him, but the human helped ORT with her problems with Goldie a lot, so she liked him even if his death ray was of inferior make.
She even talked with him a bit and he gave her advice! With it, he said, she would surely express her appreciation of Goldie and his magnificent death ray and Goldie would be happy! ORT really wanted Goldie to be happy, especially now that she had the doll body to play with him – it helped her to understand Gaian concepts a bit better, and the human’s idea seemed like a good one.
***
Gilgamesh woke up with a terrible headache, lying on the bed in one of the many guest rooms within the Emiya residence. He already recognised the room, familiar with the feeling of the bed – one of its legs was slightly short, a clear failure in craftsmanship – to the point that he could already recognise which room he was in without even opening his eyes. The sheer frequency at which events like this happened left him with the ability to do that, no matter how much he wished that this disgrace would already end.
Of course, it could have been worse. He still remembered the time when ORT attempted some “playful nibbling” and nearly chewed his ear off. This time, it ended at aching bones and muscles, nothing that wouldn’t pass after a short while.
He opened his eyes.
Unfortunately, even the King of Heroes could make mistakes, as his earlier assessment proved to be greatly inaccurate.
Before him, next to his bed, stood the puppet body of that dreadful cosmic spider. Over two meters tall and of undetermined ethnicity, her skin pale with just the slightest hint of green hinting at the reinforcing crystal lattice that ORT weaved into that magus’ original model. Her hair was formed from the same substance; long, bright green crystalline strands that sparkled in the sunlight. By all standards, she was beautiful – shaped like a goddess of the days of old, with ample bosom and curves in all the right places, truly a work of art created by the puppeteer – one of the few worthy of the title in the modern era. However, the King of Heroes knew all too well just what sort of monstrosity hid beneath that pleasant façade. Well, at least she still had a more pleasant personality than Ishtar, though. Not that it said much.
This time, however, even all of his experience with her eccentricities was not enough. The puppet was no longer wearing the heavy coat of impossibly-flexible green crystal that ORT seemed to favour – instead, it was wearing an apron.
Apron and nothing but apron.
Frozen in shock for a moment, Gilgamesh could not react in time as she smiled, leaned over him and hugged him, burying his face deep within her exposed breasts. He could feel the touch of her soft, bare skin, feeling so hot, and not all of it due to the verdant flames burning deep within her.
Then, she purred into his ear, her voice full of warmth and appreciation.
“I just wanted to tell you, Gilgamesh, that I think you have the most wonderful death ray.”
Under that relentless assault, the mind of the King of Heroes snapped like a twig.
***
Inside of the living room of the Emiya residence, one Sakura Matou was preparing the dinner as the owner of the house, Shirou Emiya, walked in. Ever since their first encounter with ORT as it descended upon Fuyuki, Sakura moved into his house – in no small part because what was left of the Matou residence and her grandfather’s legacy could be stuffed into a single, very small matchbox. Despite everything that happened during that incident, she did not regret it one bit.
She stopped chopping vegetables for a moment and turned towards him, visibly confused by something.
“Say, sempai, do you know where the apron is? I looked everywhere, but I just could not find it.”
Shirou stifled a laugh; although he was the very last person that one could consider mischievous, sometimes, in certain situations, even he could not stop himself.
“Ah, ORT came by in the middle of night, holding unconscious Gilgamesh, and asked me for advice as to how to express her feelings for him properly. Eventually, I introduced her to the concept of ‘naked apron’. She seemed really keen on it, so I lent her ours.”
Sakura looked at him in utter disbelief just as the desperate cry of the King of Heroes echoed in the corridors of the Emiya residence.
Truly, those were the most interesting of times.
The Second Tale
Fuyuki City.
One of the greatest spiritual lands in the far-away nation of Japan, where the reach of the Mage Association and the Church alike was tenuous at best – it was the perfect place to perform a great magical ritual. Far away from the watchful eyes, a place where even the greatest of sins could be committed with little worry that those in power would take offence.
However, every action has its consequences.
Now, Fuyuki was a city of monsters, where one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors made its lair and ruled over it, seeing it as little more than its own personal larder. The population of the city, long since used to the inexplicable and bizarre events happening, continued to live their lives, blissfully unaware of the true extent of the threat that resided within their city.
The occasional disappearance attracted little attention by that point, just yet another life lost in the sea of crime. Mankind no longer believed in the monsters lurking within the shadows, and its predators were all too glad to continue this state of affairs.
After all, this was Japan. The reach of the Mage Association and the Church alike was tenuous there at best – none of the usual protectors of humanity knew or cared what went on in that distant, eastern land, and could do little to act there in any case. What better place was there for monsters, then, to enjoy themselves to their fullest?
Nevertheless, what few families of magi lived within Fuyuki, tasked with protecting and taking care of its land, did their best to stand against the tide of darkness that threatened to drown the city.
They were its heroes.
***
The young woman’s scream cut through the night, a sound that was all too common in Fuyuki these days, as she desperately tried to escape from her pursuers. At first she thought that they were normal muggers – a strange and unexpected sight in that area of Shinto, but not impossible, now that even the criminals did not want to stick to the dark alleys for fear of what lurked within the shadows - but the way they moved, their faces, their teeth quickly made it obvious that something was terribly wrong.
So she ran, as fast as she could, going through the deserted streets and hoping that just perhaps, if she got lucky, she would not end up as yet another name added to the Fuyuki's ever-increasing missing person list.
The ones after her followed her at their own quick, tireless pace. There was no need for them to run; a woman, an office worker wearing high heels, would not have the endurance to run for very long – and when she would tire, they would catch up to her with ease.
Humans were, after all, endurance predators, and it made the final reward all the sweeter in the end.
***
The harsh, claw-like hands held the sobbing woman in a firm grip, pulling her up from where she collapsed.
“Ah, how delightful.~”
A single woman stepped out of the crowd of the pale, dead faces, exuding a certain predatory beauty in the harsh moonlight. She was dressed in a long, fanciful Western-style dress, black and blood-red, feeling eerily out of place with the variety of humans – if they could still be called that – surrounding her, a group containing everything from common criminals to salarymen.
What, however, immediately gained the attention of the captured woman were her eyes. They were inhuman, blood-red, staring at her with predatory malice, seemingly boring into her soul.
“That was certainly enjoyable. A little exercise before the meal is the best, after all.~”
Her voice, so dissonant from her eyes, was pleasant, cheerful, almost friendly as she walked towards her captive, her smile growing and growing as she went.
Until it was no longer a smile, but a maw full of teeth.
The woman knew that she was in great danger, but her mind felt like in a haze, bound by those red eyes, unable to even so much as scream for help - not even when she could feel her breath on her neck, as the jaws started to close on her throat…
With a sudden jerk, she was thrown backwards, slamming into a metal fence, the arms that held her severed by a pair of blades.
As she crumbled onto the ground, her capturer’s hypnosis broken, she could see the back of her saviour.
A shape in green clothes, his face hidden by a mask, wielding a pair of swords; one white and one black, both now stained with blood.
The woman with the blood-red eyes exploded in laughter, her long, sharp teeth on full display, and a dozen walking corpses stepped forwards, dashing faster than should be possible for any human towards the strange hero.
The battle itself was something amazing to witness, a burst of violence that barely lasted seconds and yet left a dozen bodies on the ground, none of them in less than five parts. The hero moved with a grace that felt almost like some sort of dance, dodging the claw-like fingers of the dead with practiced ease, his blades sliding smoothly through flesh, parting entire bodies at a time.
The only reaction to this from the creatures’ master was more amusement and laughter, almost as if she was a child that just found another toy to play with.
Then she moved, a motion that the saved woman could not even follow, her claws – real claws, not just fingers used in an attempt to imitate such – aiming straight for the hero’s throat. She was more like a bullet being fired, where one could see the cause and the effect, but not the actual passage of the lethal projectile.
Her saviour nevertheless managed to react, swords clashing against hardened claws, drawing blood from the increasingly-inhuman woman, but her former smile only continued to twist into a maniacal grin as she pushed forwards. Her monstrous strength lifted the hero off the ground and slammed him into a wall, concrete cracking under the tremendous pressure. However, within moments, he was back on his feet, and the fight resumed.
It was not a battle between humans.
She tried to crawl away from the fighting – the noises behind her were growing increasingly loud, from the mere intensity of a machinegun firing to a sound that resembled cloth being ripped as the monster and the hero exchanged their blows.
But it was all for naught. After just another few seconds, the sounds stopped, and a tremendous impact pinned her to the ground, bones breaking with a sickening crack, as the winner of the fight stopped her attempt to escape with a single stomp.
The monstrous woman laughed, the sound altogether less pleasant than it was before, madness and bloodlust creeping into it as it continued to increase in volume.
“This is it? Is that all you have, human? I would have never thought that someone so pathetic would have the gall to interrupt my meal.”
She was holding the hero by his throat, crushing it with her inhuman strength, the two swords nowhere to be seen. His clothes were miraculously still whole, but the sheer force of the monster’s blows must have brought him down.
“Well,” she said, exposing his throat with her other hand, her maw descending upon it, “A little exercise before a meal is the best, though.~”
Moments before her teeth could pierce his skin, however, a series of cracks pierced through the air, and the monster leaped off the woman, though she kept a firm grasp on the fallen hero.
The remaining walking dead were torn apart, whips of verdant light and fire annihilating the entire group of over twenty former humans within an instant.
The footsteps that followed in the ensuing silence felt incredibly loud, metal and crystal on ruined pavement, but they quickly stopped, replaced by a voice. It was proud and regal, yet oozing contempt, the speaker utterly disgusted by the sight before him.
“How unsightly, you faker,” the man in the golden armour spoke, “to be defeated by this sort of opponent. If some leech can break you like this, then what worth are you?”
His eyes were red as well, like the monstrous woman’s, but there was something different about them; rather than gleeful malice, there was a certain sense of royalty within them; the gaze of a monarch observing his subjects and possessions. He was not a predator, but a king.
“Mine.”, the woman in a coat of green crystal spoke, surrounded by a halo of verdant fire, “Not yours. Mine.”
Her voice was eerily beautiful, having a strange, crystalline quality that seemed to surround the woman; even her hair looked like thin strands of green crystal. However, there was something disturbing within her, her eyes, her posture.
She was hungry. Oh, so terribly hungry. And there was just a morsel in front of her…
The vampire stared at the pair in confusion, and then started laughing again, the sound, this time, devoid of all malice; a genuine expression of amusement.
“This is amazing,” she spoke, nearly reduced to tears, “all this pompous speech and posturing, and your friend here is literally drooling! Is this what they call Japanese stand-up comedy?”
“If you want him,” she raised the man in her hand, still unconscious or too wounded to move, and threw him into another wall, his body crumbling to the ground, “then go get him! This has gone on for long enough and I have no patience for clowns.”
The golden king looked at her with little more than boredom, then glanced at his companion, who was, in fact, drooling.
“I refuse to dirty my blades with this sort of filth. Enjoy her to your heart’s content, spider.”
“Yay!”, the woman in green grinned widely and cheered, “thanks, Goldie, you are the best! Well now, bon appétit!”
Ever so slowly, a look of understanding crept onto the monster woman’s face, as her mind finally started to connect the dots, but she had no time to react before the gold king’s companion was on her, smashing her into the ground with the strength that she could not even begin to compare to; the raw, frightening power that could approach even the great Herakles.
What happened next managed to ruin what little composure the woman whom the vampire originally attempted to eat had left, a sight so bizarre and monstrous that it could not seem like anything other than a terrible dream.
The woman in green started to eat the monster, teeth like needles tearing through her flesh, gulping down entire fistfuls of meat at once, arms and legs holding down the predator turned prey as she was, ever so slowly, devoured alive.
She did not stop laughing, though, ever as her body started to disappear, piece by piece.
“So that’s what she is,” she paused for a moment as her body was twisted during a particularly strong jerk as the crystal woman ripped off one of her breasts, “the rumours were true after all! Amazing, how amazing…”
She sighed in contentment, now nearly gone, little more than head left of her flesh.
“To be slain by the Fifth of the Ancestors, the equal of the great Crimson Moon himself…! Ah, that’s truly the best death that I could have hoped for.”
Then she was gone, and her killer started on the bones, her teeth breaking them with sickening cracks, sucking out the marrow and then swallowing the pieces.
By the time the grim spectacle was done, nothing remained of the vampire but the few scattered spots of blood that ORT did not bother to lick up.
“Yummy!~”
Gilgamesh turned his bored gaze towards the panicking, hyperventilating woman on the ground, and allowed himself a small sigh.
“I suppose it is too much to expect for one of those worthless magi to be around to clean up after her,” he glanced at his companion, who now crawled on all fours towards the fallen hero and started poking him with one of her armoured fingers, “I swear, I have only seen a single woman be such a hassle before, and the goddess of love and war is a high standard for her to live up to.”
“While killing you to eliminate the only witness would be faster, a king does not casually dispose of his subjects over such trivial matters,” he looked back down at the woman, standing between her and her path to freedom, away from this terrible place, “so you are stuck here until that mongrel wakes up.”
The woman turned towards where the man was lying, the crystal monster in a woman's disguise poking him with a look of great concentration on her blood-covered face.
She really hated Mondays.
***
Far away, on top of the Center Building, the highest human-made structure in all of Fuyuki, an armoured giant turned away, the zoomed-in image of the scene vanishing from in front of his eyes as he adjusted the camera system of his suit and put away this age’s communication device away from his helmet. An inefficient, but readily available local resource.
“Private Yumizuka?”
The girl next to him yelped in surprise and saluted nervously. She was clad in a similar uniform – a thick trenchcoat of nanofibers, covering the heavy metal plates beneath – but compared to the sheer bulk of the man, she still seemed tiny.
She, unlike her superior officer, was not wearing a helmet; instead, her brown hair, done up in twintails, waved freely in the wind, and her pair of blood-red eyes were clearly visible. She preferred it that way, at least when she did not have to hide them; one of the little freedoms she could still afford.
“Y-yes, Sir Edem?”
“I have informed the base about the situation,” he said as he continued onwards, forcing the hapless private to run after him, “and we have been told to fall back. For now.”
He took to the air, his suit’s contragrav raising him off the building’s roof.
“But this isn’t over yet, private. This perverse ‘love’…” , he raised his right hand and clenched it in anger, “I shall destroy it with my own hands!”
Private Yumizuka cringed at the familiar sight, even before she heard the quiet crunch as yet another part of her salary vanished, crushed by the knight’s tremendous strenght.
“Sir Edem! I told you to stop breaking the cellphones!”
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Originally Posted by Seika
