The world was filled with light. There was nothing holy about it; it was clearly a profane, fiendish thing, in all its pristine brightness. Something made to elicit anguish and despair, not awe. But even the solar vessel in the sky was outdone by that explosion of white radiance smothering Chiyou. The Pharaoh, Ozymandias, snorted in undisguised amusement.
“Um, is this really alright…? It feels like we are playing second fiddle to a demon god of all things…”
“Do not say foolish things, Pharaoh Nitocris,” replied the great man in a light tone. “There is a proper way to all things. The demon presented herself before me using the proper protocol and offering the proper gifts.”
He gestured towards the golden chest, its open lid revealing a plethora of Ascension materials.
“It is only right to present her with my favor, especially after she merely asked for me to display my magnificence in this place. Indeed, you could even learn from that well-educated demon child.”
“Wha—!? Bu-but, Pharaoh Ozymandias—!”
“Besides!” interrupted the Son of Ra. “If that foolish King of Uruk will not take care of that infant Beast, why should I? If the demon wishes to serve, then let it serve. If the demon wishes to die, then let it die.”
“D-Die? Oh, Great Pharaoh, it is my shame to admit, but I do not understand—”
“What is there to understand? Even if Chiyou is a fledging Beast, it is still a Beast. The demon child cannot match it; it could not have matched it in its original form.
That child cannot defeat Chiyou. Now be still and watch.”
************************
Assassin released a long sigh.
“It is done.”
She was satisfied. Ergo, it was time to move on with the plan.
“Hmph. Come back when you’ve experienced 44 deaths per second. Then we can talk about fear.”
The space in front of her had been cleared of snow. It was a gaping, barren space. Unlike Herodias, this bullet had not pierced through Chiyou’s body, instead exploding on contact, exactly as she had guessed it would. Destroying Chiyou had never been a possibility; it was all about creating time.
Creating the circumstances through which she could fire at the soles of her feet—the only part of her body not enveloped by her all-destroying aura.
This proved critically important, as the Harbinger of Chaos’ unsettling presence bloated as if it could smother the entire world. It prickled on her skin as if she still stood in front of her. That Chiyou was a creature of emotions and desires, and the only things Assassin felt in that aura were hatred and bloodthirst.
“Um, yeah, gotta run now.”
It took mere seconds to reach the access point to Chaldea, where the last Master and his escort awaited. She did not stop running.
“Um, Barbatos—”
“Yoink!”
“Aaaaaaaaa-reeeeeeeeee?” The Master’s voice, altered by the Doppler Effect, echoed across the halls of Chaldea as he was effortlessly lifted and carried over Assassin’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“da Vinci! The summoning chamber! Where!?”
“You know, I was right next to him, Your Grace.” The genius’ voice reached Assassin through the building’s all-reaching communication fixture.
“So was I,” added Naamah Alter
“You break my heart, Barbatos.”
“Well I would love to have tea and cookies, my Queen, but now’s really not the time.”
“Tea and cookies? Is that the influence of possessing a resident of London?”
“Really not the time, my Queen.”
As if on cue, the earth rumbled, the mountain groaned, and the sky took a sickly reddish hue in the middle of the night.
“…she is coming back.”
“Of course she is.” Barbatos rolled her eyes at da Vinci stating the obvious.
“But, why?”
“Ah, Mashu Kyrielight.”
“Ah, yes, Miss Barbatos.”
Everybody could picture Mashu’s polite bow of greeting in their minds.
“Shouldn’t Chiyou take this chance to run away? I mean, is not her wish to, um, ‘infect’ humanity with Banner of Chiyou?”
“Well, yeah. The problem with that is that
she is Chiyou. More than anything else, her aim is to excel. To be unique, and stand over all others. She can’t let me get away with the shit I’ve pulled off on her. And she’s never been into common sense in the first place, so it’s not like she can save her revenge on us for later.” Assassin then nodded to herself. “But that was a good question, Mashu Kyrielight. I guess there’s more to you than being a hopeless masochist.”
“Eh!?”
“What? I mean, you’re in the exclusive Shielder Class. That’s all about taking punishment, isn’t it? And you even came back to life just to bear with more pain. That’s some serious dedication.”
“So that’s how it works, after all!”
“Senpai! It’s not like it works at all! Rather, shouldn’t the same apply to Miss Barbatos!?”
“No, no, the Time Temple thing was entirely one-sided from you people, I agreed to none of it. Things like that are why Safe Words are a thing, shitty Master. Anyway, the way to the summoning room, Marshmallow Tits-and-Thighs.”
“I was just called something horrible, senpai!”
“Dunno, it might actually catch on. I mean, the rhyming’s not that good, but—”
“Senpai!”
“Mashu, just do as she says,” interceded da Vinci.
“We’ll do our best to hold Chiyou back until you’re done.”
“Good. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Goodbye, Barbatos.”
“A pleasure as always, my Queen.”
Thusly, Barbatos and her load were guided by Mashu’s voice and the Master’s own indications.
“So, what’s the plan? After all that boasting, you won’t even beat Chiyou and save the day?”
“You are the world’s shittiest idiot if you think I can beat that monster,” retorted the Demon God. “I was just getting back at her for profaning my former body.”
“So Chiyou’s first Grail really was…”
“What remained of Demon Pillar Barbatos after the Time Temple, yes.”
“Um, about that…”
“What’s with that lame-ass voice, shitty Master?” Assassin laughed. “You think I’d be the kind of bitch who keeps grudges for something like getting fucking brutalized forty-four fucking times per second for the good part of a fucking day?”
“Ow-ow-ow-ow—nails! My back! Pain!”
“Don’t be silly, we’re cool!
Don’t worry, be happy! Wahahahaha!”
“You’re totally still angry about it! Holy crap, my spine!”
Reaching their destination, Barbatos allowed the young man back on his feet, only for his legs to give in as he rubbed his back like an old man.
“You demon.”
“That I am.” She nodded effusively. “But seriously, didn’t I say it earlier? I already killed you, so we’re even.”
“…so that’s what you meant.”
“You mean you just figured that out!? Ahaha, you’re too slow, shitty Master!”
“You keep adding that terrible adjective lately.”
“Well, you’re a Master, and I think you are a hopeless piece of shit, so it just works. Ah, there’s the shield. Good.”
The curious huntress twirled around Galahad’s shield, studying it curiously but making sure never to touch it.
“So you’re just going to keep looking down on me?”
"Have you forgotten, shitty Master?” Barbatos replied with a cheeky tone. “I was part of the collective called Goetia. The Beast of Pity. I would cease to be myself if I ever stopped looking down on you, human.”
She followed that with a wink, which only made the young man groan and give up. Women, to him, were truly unfathomable.
“Anyway, back on topic. Shitty Master, the plan is simple: nobody here can beat Chiyou. So we just have to summon the strongest Servant.”
“I thought Gilgamesh was the strongest Servant…?”
“Power you cannot wield at your will is worthless. Gilgamesh may be able to beat Chiyou, but he’s an asshole who does as he pleases. I wouldn’t have to come here if we could count on him. Better to go with someone more reliable.”
“How about Artoria? I’m pretty sure Excalibur can take care of it.”
“Well, you are absolutely right, but your King of Knights is not fighting Chiyou right now for a reason, right?”
“Ah, yes. Miss Artoria is still pacifying the rest of the Knights of the Round Table, senpai.
”
“Also, she’s as susceptible to
Banner of Chiyou as almost everybody else. So there ya go.”
“Alright, my bad. So? Who we summoning?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The one who’s missed out of this whole charade, of course. The remaining one.”
“…Saber Chiyou.”
“Got it in one.”
“Ah, um, Miss Barbatos, it pains me to say this, but Chiyou destroyed our stock of Saint Quartz!”
An unholy howl surged out of the Master’s throat as he fell on his knees and cursed all existence. For that, he got a textbook look of scorn from the horned Assassin.
“Fuck, you’re pathetic. Not a problem, Mashu Kyrielight. I’ll provide the Saint Graph.”
“But, we’ve also taken significant damage, so I’m not sure we can power a summoning—”
“Not a problem either. I will act as the foundation and catalyst for the ritual.”
That caught the young man and woman unaware.
“Miss Barbatos…?”
“Are you little shits slow or what? I’m a demon That makes me a wish-granter by definition. It’s the reason Chiyou could take a chunk of me and use it as a Grail in the first place. It’s the reason I can be here as a Phantom. I’ll just become a Grail again, so you can summon Chiyou.”
“Bu-but, Miss Barbatos! You’re not—that’s just like Irisviel! If you make yourself into a Grail, you will—
”
“That’s enough, Mashu.”
“Senpai!”
“Alright, let’s get started!” Barbatos declared, as her body began to emit a faint, arcane iridescence. At the same time, her body began to break apart, starting at the tips of her fingers. “Good to know you’re on board with this, shitty Master.”
“I hate every part of this, Barbatos,” retorted the young man, his voice nary a trace of humor. “I’m getting sick and tired of other people sacrificing themselves, so I can save the world.”
Assassin’s eyes widened for a moment, as she came to grasp just another thing she had missed about the young man she despised.
“Ah, I see. Yeah, I guess you would feel like that.”
“Of course!” added the Demi-Servant, who despite her feelings was properly operating the summoning chamber, feeding whatever energy was available to the ritual circle and the shield in the center.
“No matter who it is, no matter how many times we fought before, watching you die like this…how could we possibly be okay with that!?”
“Hmph,” uttered Barbatos, while Lilith’s Saint Graph, prepared to act as the core for a Saber-class Servant, appeared from the same mysterious space where Assassin stored her magical treasures. Almost half of her head was already gone, making her speaking form quite the bizarre scene.
“To come to understand the value of one's existence upon coming into realization of one's imminent end. That is something you should well understand, Mashu Kyrielight.”
Both Master and Phantom heard a muted gasp from the other side of the communication channel. They could only leave Mashu to her quite sobbing after that.
“Don’t make that overly serious face, shitty Master, it doesn’t suit you,” continued the horned girl. “You’ll never make it as a stoic, badass hero, ya know.”
The young man raised the hand with his Command Seals, readying himself to beseech a Servant from beyond space and time.
“Barbatos—"
“—died a whole lot of times at the Time Temple. Its time was over then; this was just a pointless, unnecessary epilogue. An afterstory. My pathetic clinging to life only gave Chiyou the chance to pull off her shit stunt, so this is just me fixing my stupid mistake.”
“I don’t think you want to die, Barbatos.”
“Of course I don’t want to die, stupid piece of shit Master!” roared the demon. Energy was building up around her, in the form of sparking rings of plasma.
“I lost to you and your army of Servants! My judgment was rejected by humanity, by fate, by history and by the world! Me losing meant I had become unnecessary! The only reason I could defy death in this form is because I was killed outside time!”
“Yes…yes. You are…just like me, Miss Barbatos,” murmured Mashu between sobs.
Barbatos bit her bottom lip, dispelling her outburst of emotion.
“I have no clue how
you came back, Mashu Kyrielight, but I did it by defying my nature as a demon—we’re not supposed to fulfill our own wishes, ya know. I’m surprised the Counter Force didn’t do its darnedest to kill me, but I guess it decided it might as well use me against Chiyou.”
“Wait, Barbatos,” the Master interrupted with some alarm. “Are you implying the other dead Pillars could also come back like you?”
“Nah, nah, nuthin’ like that.” Barbatos chuckled dismissively. “Isn't it amazing? Upon achieving individuality, we all came to different conclusions. All of them wrong, and none matched that of the collective. Perhaps that was the true meaning of being the Beast of Pity.”
She crossed her arms, even if they were mostly gone by this point.
“But, it is strange that I was the only one who decided on taking a form like this…no, that was not much of a decision. Mere desperation born of trauma. Oh, do not be mistaken; I still despise you for that.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Also…before I remade myself like this, I met a certain fool. He was an idiot till the very end, but I felt I owed him for some reason, so I could not ignore his last request.”
A smile returned to her face: half in reminiscence, half in enjoyment of the Master’s pitiful expression.
“Hmph. I still think you are a worthless excuse of a piece of shit human, but there is no mistaking it: you were much loved by that man, shitty Master.”
His right hand trembled, and his vision became blurred, but the young man did not let himself falter any further. It was nothing like the nonsense of presenting a manly façade, or denying Barbatos the pleasure of making him cry.
He was in the middle of the job. The job
that man left in his hands.
He was not allowed to falter.
“Good,” nodded the former Demon Pillar. “Well, this is it. Shitty Master, never forget: you are the one who defeated us, Goetia. That means you are not allowed to lose to anybody else! I won’t allow it! I’ll come back to kick your ass if I have to!”
“Haha, that would be fun in its own way.”
The floating, unraveling form reeled away, almost leaning on the great shield behind her.
“Wha—wait, so you two are a masochist couple!? It will never work! You have to strike a balance!”
“I’m telling you it’s not like thaaaaaaat!”
But there was no chance for further retorts, as the Grail, Barbatos, disappeared in a burst of intense white light. The last thing the young man in front of her could see, before he was forced to close his eyes, was the demon’s dazzling smile.
Joy. Relief. Satisfaction. Sparling eyes that said, “I’ve done my part”, “It will be fine from now on”, and “I’ll leave it to you from here.”
He hoped that, at the end of his days, he too could smile like that.
************************
“That,” concluded Jeanne d’Arc Alter. “is no woman. That’s pure monster over there.”
“I can agree with you on that, little sister.”
“Who the hell’s your little sister, you virgin slut!”
“S-Slut!?”
Chiyou walked an inexorable, unstoppable path back towards Chaldea. Her womanly body was mostly hidden within a squirming, inchoate
mass of aura—a glowing orange radiance seemed to possess thickness and density as if tangible, creating the unsettling image of a beautiful demoness wrapped in bloated, sunset-tinted tentacles. To approach her was to face extermination. Caligula, Frankenstein’s Monster and Erik Bloodaxe had already been unraveled by the ravenous tendrils of baleful light, which reacted to intercept all attacks and tear apart anything that got anywhere close. Ushiwakamaru and X Alter miraculously retreated quickly enough, while Jack from the very beginning chose to rely on throwing daggers from a distance. However, ranged attacks were as effortlessly intercepted. Only Herakles, finest of heroes that he is, could withstand melee combat against the monstrosity, but it was clear his was a losing battle.
But the thing that worried them the most was the diminutive mote of violet light held between Chiyou’s hands. They had no way to confirm it, but they all could tell it was the true form of her Anti-World Noble Phantasm. The concentrated power in that tiny ball of light was such that it distorted space and light around it. The new colors emitted by Chiyou’s aura and powers were the same red from before, only altered by gravitational redshift.
A stream of twin flames from Naamah and Jeanne Alter was promptly devoured by the light, just like all the ones before.
“So? Any brilliant plans, da Vinci?”
The Universal Woman shook her head at Dragon Witch’s scathing question.
“This time we don’t have to do anything. This stage belongs to someone else.”
Before anybody could respond to that, a sword crossed the space between da Vinci’s and Jeanne’s faces. In a flash, it flew swift and true, piercing through Chiyou’s aura and tearing flesh with a loud squelch.
The Beast howled.
“As your big sister, I am somewhat disappointed. Not surprised, really. Just, disappointed.”
Everybody froze. Even the Greek demigod caught himself before lashing at Chiyou. Even Chiyou’s aura froze as if time had stopped. Nobody moved.
Nobody could move.
Strong.
The word formed unbidden in their minds. It was the only feasible thought, as if the concept of strength itself were what calmly approached from the end of that hallway.
It was no mere woman who approached.
Healthy brown skin framing a taut body with subtle curves. Long, unkempt hair, a curtain hiding the entirely of her back; a messy, black mane. A pair of bull’s horns with the luster of green jade. Six arms: not quite flesh, not quite metal. Irises the noble color of the morning sky after a downpour, a gentle blue that almost diluted itself into the white surrounding it. However, there was no room in their minds to admire her beauty, or distrust her cocky smirk.
Strong.
Only that impression was allowed to exist, smothering all other thoughts.
This was not the overwhelming presence of the King of Heroes, nor the regal poise of the King of Knights, nor the blood-curdling terror of the Greek demigod, nor the unfathomable twistedness of an Evil of Mankind. This was a creature that exuded
strength by sheer virtue of existing, to a degree that it made them question whether that woman was truly a Servant like them.
She walked past da Vinci and the others, sparing them not a glance, but a few words instead.
“You have done well. For that, I can only give my thanks. But Chiyou’s mistakes are Chiyou’s to fix.”
Caring not for responses, Saber stepped into the cold night outdoors, to face her counterpart. However, Herakles stood between the two.
“You are in the way.”
The mighty Berserker, completely dominated by its Mad Enhancement, promptly challenged what it considered the greatest threat.
“
Peace must be paid for in blood,” murmured Saber as an incantation. “
Blood for the forge, blood for the law. Find your rest at the end of the bloodshed. Sleep at the shores of the sea of chaos.”
A single, non-descript sword appeared in her middle right hand. For all its plainness, it was obviously a Noble Phantasm to the eyes of those present. At the same time, the Beast Chiyou seized the opportunity, unleashing a tidal wave of eldritch tendrils at the back of Herakles, aiming to tear apart both Berserker and Saber.
“
My soul is the steel. Its fire is my blood.”
Every single tendril was intercepted by a different weapon. Upon contact, both light and metal scattered into worthless motes. Herakles’ absurd axe chop was quickly dodged, and Saber buried her sword in the giant’s body, all the way to the hilt. Quickly letting of it, Saber conjured yet another weapon: this time a great maul dwarfing even Herakles’ weapon in size and weight, so much so that she held it with all three pairs of arms.
“Seriously, take a break over there!”
The hulking giant was bludgeoned away, creating a Herakles-shaped hole in the snow from which it did not come out.
“Herakles appears to be unconscious, senpai!”
“Don’t remove the sword from his gut until I say so,” warned the dark-skinned Servant before centering her attention on the Beast.
“You…” growled the former Assassin. “Why are you even…Barbatos.”
Saber shrugged.
“The heartfelt voice of a Demon God called for my aid. That would make anyone curious.”
The Beast wrapped in a raiment of tentacles was a grotesque thing, mirrored by the uneven rictus on her face, like her lower jaw was not properly attached to the skull. On the other hand, Saber spoke placidly and informally, like she was catching up with an old acquaintance.
At some point, she began twirling a dagger in one of her hands.
“So! Looks like you’ve been up to something interesting. I got the gist of it from the Master and his partner, but looking at you in that form fills most of the gaps. Hooray for the convenience of Servant stats.”
Something like
creating a dagger-type Noble Phantasm that allowed its wielder to read Servant stats like a Master was child’s play to this woman.
“So, I’m waiting,” continued Saber. “Let’s see how you explain this to me. Heck, convince me what you’re doing is worthy, and I’ll destroy Chaldea for you.”
None in the audience felt the slightest bit threatened by that last statement. Beast Chiyou’s face was partially concealed, but what they could see spoke a thousand words. Her face shifted between surprise, outrage, frustration, humiliation and unspeakable rage at unnerving speed; it was almost pitiful to watch. The fledging Beast truly looked like a young girl righteously scolded by her elder sister.
“Don’t…don’t fuck with me!”
The aura flared to life with renewed intensity, eating away at the snow beneath her feet and the very air surrounding her. Saber did not mind the weak pull attracting all matter towards the Beast. The nearby snow and debris that did surrender to the pull began to orbit in the air around Chiyou, as the Law of Gravitation broke down in her vicinity.
“You don’t get to take this from me! This is my triumph! This is my realization! This is how I will—!”
The Beast snapped her jaw shut, unwilling to speak another word. Saber smiled cattily.
“…reach me?”
The Beast’s eyes glowed red.
“I will surpass you!”
The aura expanded into dozens of tendrils, all of them quivering as if wondering why they weren’t dicing and slicing yet.
“Not like this,” refuted Saber, shaking her head. “But, fair enough, let us fight. I’ll start slow. Are thirty okay with you?”
In an instant, thirty weapons floated in the air behind Saber. The manifestation lacked the flair of
Gate of Babylon—rather than emerging from a separate space, they assembled rapidly out of countless diminutive grains, as if Chiyou had gathered the dust in her surroundings and turned it into Noble Phantasms.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm,” murmured da Vinci. “So this is the skill of the original smith god. The invincible war god, undefeated in single battle.”
“What, some cheap Gilgamesh rip-off?” retorted Jeanne Alter. “I mean, it doesn’t matter how many she can make if they’re all shitty-ass E-ranks.”
The Beast was neither humbled nor intimidated. If anything, she was further enraged by the display.
“Stop mocking me!”
“Fine. Thirty hundred it is.”
Three thousand.
That was the number of weapons creating a floating barrier of iron, copper, bronze and steel around them. It was impossible for the people of Chaldea to check one by one, but there was not a single repeat. Each and every single weapon was a unique, original E-rank Noble Phantasm.
“I sure hope there’re no satellites looking this way,” da Vinci murmured. “Keeping this from the Association is going to a be a real pickle.”
“A bitch,” retorted the Master of Chaldea. “It’s going to be a bitch.”
Even the Beast had to look at the feat with a measure of trepidation this time. Saber was stretching her six arms.
“I’m being generously fed by Chaldea, I’m feeling great! Maybe I should try for thirty thousand tonight.”
The Beast growled, gathering her wits. It would take far more than this to shatter her confidence.
“Monster.”
“
No.”
Saber’s affable countenance was replaced with a steel glare.
“
I am Chiyou. And so are you.”
The scanning dagger long gone, a Chinese straight sword appeared in her middle right hand, pointing at the former Assassin.
“Aren’t you ashamed, using the same insults as the
common rabble?”
The Beast howled, unleashing a thousand tendrils.
Saber charged, six hands wielding weapons.
Three thousand blades fell upon them both.
What the Last Master of Humanity witnessed for the following twenty seconds or so was utter insanity, even within the by-now-all-too-familiar realm of Servant-versus-Servant combat. The clash of metal with aura released a bizarre, unexplainable ringing sound, and there were so many such clashes that the instances of ringing reverberated into an ear-shattering vibration.
“I can’t—I can’t keep up with their speed!” cried out the Maid of Orleans.
“That white bitch was still holding back on us!” complained her Alter counterpart.
“Are they even hurting each other!?” wondered da Vinci.
“They are!” affirmed Ushiwakamaru, whose eyes refused to blink and miss an instant of the chaotic brilliance they witnessed. “It’s just—!”
She said no more. The young warrior was transfixed, in a way the young Master could understand. The look on her face reminded him of his own, the first few times he witnessed two Servants fighting.
The utter trepidation of witnessing such power, and the deep admiration towards the proof that such power could manifest in this world.
Servant battles were terrifying without exception, but the best of them were magnificently beautiful. He had considered directing his Servants to assist Saber Chiyou; now he knew that was madness.
In front of them clashed the pinnacle of chaos versus the pinnacle of combat.
Who in their right mind would get in the way of that?
Six arms moved in perfect unison, never crashing or disrupting each other, delivering mighty thrusts and slashes to hold the growing swarm of crimson-turned orange. Like a tidal wave of snakes descending upon the God of War, hundreds if not thousands of tendrils seemingly competed amongst themselves to bite at Saber’s body, but none could touch her. She wielded a halberd, a longsword, an axe and a pair of shamshirs, constantly disintegrated and constantly recreated as they intercepted the vile deluge. What the five weapons in her hands could not deflect was smothered beneath the barrage of metal Saber had conjured.
The six arms blurred in front of her, never disturbing each other, their weapons an effective wall that held the unraveling chaos at bay. The rain of weapons from above was devoured by just as many tendrils, and those that would have threated their creator herself were effortlessly dodged and even used to attempt to surprise the Beast with attacks using Saber’s body as cover. When the threnody of shattered weapons and blades impacting the ground created a new avalanche, the Beast’s aura and a zweihänder wreathed in flames wiped it away in an instant like the annoying intruder it was, along with all the snow carpeting the ground outside Chaldea.
What felt like an endless concerto of combat lasted only twenty-one seconds, ending when Beast Chiyou leapt backwards and away from her opponent, all the while unleashing her swarm of vile tendrils to prevent a chase. Saber quickly conjured a wall of shields that took the blunt of the attack for her. The tendrils receded, and the shattered wall crumbled into nothing.
“First blood was mine,” taunted the Beast.
“I hit you more,” retorted Saber. She was smirking again.
“I got your arm.” Indeed, Saber’s middle left arm was gone, sliced halfway between shoulder and elbow.
Saber’s smirk grew to Cheshire Cat levels.
“Well, I sealed your
Banner.”
“Whuh!?”
The Master and da Vinci looked quickly at Jeanne d’Arc.
“Ye—yes, I no longer feel its effect assailing me.”
“Don’t celebrate just yet, Chaldea,” interrupted the smugly-smiling Saber. “Those affected still remain so. Not even killing her will fix tha—”
“Curse you!” shouted the pale Beast as she did the unexpected: she charged forward, fists poised for combat. When she stepped into the sphere of death defined by the reach of Saber’s weapons, Beast hunched low for a split moment before decisively going for a right jab. It met the flat of a blade, and then all of Saber’s arms jerked back, as if they all had taken the same blow.
“You—!” hissed Saber, whose smiling countenance had disappeared again.
“Die!” howled the Beast, never unceasing the assault. If anything, the aura tendrils joined again, and the duel of unarmed versus armed martial artists continued amidst a maelstrom of radiant energy meeting forged metal. The rain of weapons seemed to never cease, matching the constructs of light one by one, neither ever flying close enough to harm the “sisters”. While Beast gritted pearly white teeth in a rictus of madness, Saber held her position unflinching, her face marred by a permanent frown.
“She’s not retreating, but…” Jeanne murmured.
“She’s been overpowered,” completed Ushiwakamaru. “It’s the difference in their Strength parameters…?”
“It’s not just that,” added da Vinci. “Beast Chiyou has the power to convert anti-unit effects into anti-army. Even her punches and kicks become like a barrage from many directions.”
The Master of Chaldea had closed his eyes. For a moment, he was more concerned about the footsteps approaching from behind than the crazy battle outside. Also, he could swear he heard something like “I’m sorry”…?
“Ushiwaka. Jack,” he said all of a sudden, somewhat startling the Servants around him. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that they were technically still afflicted by
Banner of Chiyou.
“Can you kill that Beast for me?” he said, the words leaving an awkward taste in his mouth.
“Um!” Jack nodded eagerly.
“I shall bring you her head, my Lord and Master.”
Even before the two girls could leap into the snow, a deafening, terrifying howl resounded throughout the mountain. The two Chiyou stopped their melee for a moment.
“Is that—!?”
“No way; the dagger should still—”
Herakles leapt out of his hole in the ground, charging at the two like eight million bulls at Pamplona.
“HOLY SHIT!” cried out Saber just before blocking the absurd war axe with crossed battleaxes of her own. Nonetheless, she was grinning like she was having the time of her life. The Beast was laughing; a mocking, gloating sound utterly devoid of appeal.
“Looks like I get to wipe that stupid grin off your face after all,
sister!”
Saber laughed, and then released a powerful
kiai. At the same time, a fierce swing of her arms pushed Herakles away. The groves and ridges running along the seemingly-inorganic sections of her arms now glowed an intense green.
“Fine. I’ll take you both on if I have to—hey, check it out, it’s Balmung!”
While Herakles went after Saber once more, Beast quickly turned left and swiped her arm in the same direction. A flickering tongue of vile energy surged to intercept the dragon-felling greatsword, which resisted unraveling by virtue of the ancient ether imbued in it.
“You maggot!” Beast Chiyou hissed at the Germanic hero, who paid no heed to the saliva splashing his cheek. If anything, he had an uncharacteristically mischievous grin on his face.
“I’m sorry.”
He darted to the side, allowing Beast to catch a glimpse of the tip of a lance aimed at her throat. She dodged with an impossible feat of flexibility, bending her torso backwards almost 120 degrees. Saber then leapt over her body, parrying Brynhildr’s weapon in the process and forcing Beast to roll away from Herakles’s descending smash.
“First you busy yourself with the dragon girl, and now you chase after more women! Look at me, Sigurd! Rather, let me kill you!”
“Seriously, I’m not Sigu—”
At last, the much-punished ground beneath their feet gave it, creating a chasm that swallowed Herakles, Siegfried and the two Chiyou, sending them on a freefall down a vertical tunnel coated with a generous layer of ice.
“Ahaha, this is kinda fun—oh crud!”
Herakles smashed his weapon into Saber in midair, but the woman hooked a dagger axe where the axe blade met the long shaft, swinging over and behind him until he was the one crashing headfirst into the icy wall. She then conjured a myriad blade pointing upwards to meet the falling Beast while leaping off Herakles’ back to the opposite side of the tunnel.
“Ha!” cackled the pale Beast, unleashing a downpour of vile energy to devour the impromptu spike trap. Saber met the veritable pillar of crimson descending towards her with the swing of a sword glowing with holy radiance. Golden and crimson canceled each other out, and Saber crashed into her counterpart the moment she fell close enough, the two crashing together next to Herakles. Saber’s attempt to scissor twin blades through Beast’s throat was interrupted by Herakles smashing his huge fist on her own throat, throwing her like a jade meteor back across the tunnel.
“I’ll bury you both in this moun—gack!” Beast’s taunt was cut short by the falling Siegfried, whose Balmung mercilessly struck the back of her head, almost like an executioner’s axe. Then it became his turn to worry about Herakles. Some ways behind, Ushiwakamaru and Jack the Ripper literally ran down the vertical tunnel’s walls.
Siegfried grunted as he was overpowered and eventually flung away by the Greek demigod, just in time for Saber Chiyou to leap across the tunnel to smash Herakles with a greatsword even larger than Balmung.
“Go play with my sister for a while, big guy!”
On contact, the blade exploded, launching the giant Berserker like a rocket down the tunnel and out of sight. Seconds later, they heard the terrible impact and the distinct sound of shattering ice.
“You won’t get away from me, Siguuuuuuuuuurd!”
Three Servants witnessed a Valkyrie diving down the icy tunnel, lance first, and thusly ramming a dragonslayer in midair, sending them both sprawling down after Beast Chiyou and Herakles.
“Love is painful,” amusedly commented the Chinese God. Then she looked up at the two approaching girls.
“Hey you! Little girl!”
Both Ushiwaka and Jack turned to look at Chiyou, who rolled her eyes and made a dismissing gesture at Rider.
“Not you! The white one with the ass almost as amazing as mine.” Chiyou clarified, before frowning. “Which is kind of unsettling, if you think about it.”
“Um, I think she means you, Miss Jack,” concluded Ushiwaka, while the little Assassin tilted her head.
“Those knives,” inquired Chiyou, pointing at Jack’s signature weapons. “They are your Noble Phantasm.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Yes, I see an interesting history when I look at those, hmm.” A big, mischievous grin adorned the six-armed (now five-armed) beauty’s face. “I think we can do great things together, girl.”
And that was when Servants began to pour down the tunnel.
************************
The tunnel ended in a cavern; an underground pond, completely frozen. Ice had crept up the walls, spreading and metastasizing into countless crystalline outgrowths. It was there that the Beast Chiyou unleashed terrible punishment upon Herakles, having long abandoned her former static combat style to strike savagely with her supernatural martial arts. A distance away, Siegfried did his utmost best not to get himself killed by Brynhildr. The water only reached up to their knees, nigh a hindrance to Heroic Spirits or Evils of Mankind.
Then a meteor fell into the pond. A figure in skimpy white clothes with long red hair, wielding a longsword.
“Neeeeeroooooo…”
The Witch of Betrayal descending far more gracefully, floating down the icy shaft and pointing at Beast Chiyou with her staff.
“Yes, yes, the hated Nero is right over there~©”
“NEROOOOOOOOO!!!”
And a Boudicca utterly unrestrained by
Banner of Chiyou was set loose. Whatever tendrils sent in her direction were countered by Medea’s magical beams.
“Tch!” Beast clicked her tongue. “You’re all in the way!”
A single punch on the water’s surface sent major ripples that made Boudicca, Siegfried and Brynhildr stumble. Herakles, unaffected, charged at the Beast, who leapt over the slash of his weapon and forced the giant to retreat with her destructive aura. It was that same aura which automatically devoured the daggers thrown at Beast’s blind spot. Hissing in irritation, she sent snakelike tendrils to chase after Hassan of the Cursed Arm, filling the caverns with the sounds of shattering ice as the Assassin ran from cover to cover.
“What’s with all the pests all of a sudd—!?”
Her words were deafened by musket fire.
“Barbatos!?”
The reply was more gunfire. And the awesome descent of a figure in dark uniform, standing on the skeletal hand of a colossus clad in hellfire.
“Wrong! ‘tis I, the Demon Lord of the Sixth Heaven!” A great conqueror declared, her eyes glowing with madness. “And this is my Three Line Formation!”
Beast’s aura effortlessly nullified the barrage. She was warier of Herakles, who seemingly paid no heed to Nobunaga’s Noble Phantasm and continued his reckless attack.
“Fine, I’ll shatter that weapon of yours, and then I’ll break you—”
Metal canisters flung in her direction released a smoke curtain engulfing a good half of the cavern.
“Worms, the whole lot of you!” Tongues of radiance lashed out to devour the smoke away, again forcing Herakles to jump away. The Beast glared at the distant figure of the Assassin, EMIYA, before it became immersed amidst countless reflections in the jagged ice crystals. A long crimson arm like an Eastern dragon surged out of Beast’s aura to rampage across the entire area.
Feeling more than perceiving an approaching threat, Beast turned away from Kiritsugu.
Her face was pierced from front to back.
She howled, clutching her face in both hands, but the attack did not relent, not even after she haphazardly sent a stream of tendrils at the offender.
“Your foul power cannot destroy His gift!” The holy woman, Martha, proudly and ferociously declared, as her staff banished the vile tendrils on its touch. Beast’s blood trickled off its tip. “You’re not welcome in this world, demon!”
Barbatos’ similar words echoed in Beast’s mind, stoking the flames of her fury.
“Fuck that!” She howled, releasing a vortex of baleful light that made Martha shriek as she was flung backwards at its intensity. “Humanity created me, and now that you don’t like me anymore, you think you can just banish me!?”
“
Exactly.”
Saber descended gently, floating on
wings made of swords, while carrying Jack in her arms and Ushiwakamaru seated on her shoulders. The angel of steel hovered over the pond, her eyes fixated on her Beast counterpart.
“Humanity discards what it no longer needs in its path towards progress. That’s not cruelty, it’s common sense. The obsolete is left behind, the unnecessary is destroyed. Such is the way—”
“NEROOOOOOOOO!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“That’s the consequence of civilization!” Beast pushed Boudicca’s sword arm aside, choked her with her other hand and then brutally smashed her on the water. She did not even have to kill her; Herakles took care of that, she just had to leap away from his careless attack.
“That’s the cruelty behind humanity’s self-aggrandizing righteousness!” The Beast continued, sending her swarm of tendrils upwards to hunt down Medea, who had begun her tactical retreat the moment her puppet was destroyed.
“You’re right.”
“It’s unnatural!”
“We don’t get to decide that anymore. Humanity must walk the path it has—”
“
Gáe Bol—!”
“Gods-damn it let me finish a fucking sentence!”
Saber’s outrage was drowned by two simultaneous impacts, and rising columns of water as two figures fell hard on the pond. Cu Chulainn and his teacher looked up at Saber, who held identical shields in two hands.
“Why are you still alive!?” complained the Child of Light.
“To counter spears that can reverse causality, shields that impose causality. Duh.”
“Goddammit, it’s like fighting Goldie all over again.”
“I resent that! Now go fight the Beast, will ya!?”
“But you are the one who can kill me,” countered Scathach.
“Alright, just for that, I’m never killing you. Ever.”
“Tch.”
Saber Chiyou nodded with childish petulance and smugness.
“Now, where was I—”
A wordless howl echoed along the length of the vertical tunnel as something dived quickly towards Saber.
“Seriously! Away with you, little girls!”
Ushiwakamaru and Jack leapt off in time to avoid Lu Bu crashing into Saber, the two striking the bottom of the pond with a thunderous impact. Medea shot down broken crystals before they could fall on Cursed Arm and Kiritsugu, who were carefully attacking Beast from a distance while running from her unrelenting tendrils of light.
Beast Chiyou was a prodigious fighter, easily capable of constantly maneuvering to keep Martha between Herakles and herself, and thus rendering the saint unable to attack her. Nobunaga’s, Hassan’s, and Kiritsugu’s ranged assault was trivial, but her vast stores of patience were trickling down, and it only got worse when Diarmuid Ua Duibhne entered the fray. When Herakles went after the saint, the spear that pierced through magic threatened to bore holes in the Beast. When Herakles went after the spearman, the saint’s holy staff tore through the aura like it wasn’t even there.
“Like a maddened imitation could ever match the original! Away with you!”
Lu Bu was literally sent flying; the now-wingless God of War surging out of the pond fully armed and her face hidden behind a wet mop of dark hair. Her eyes being covered did not in any way hamper her response to Scathach’s and Cu’s combination assault. Three Gáe Bolgs were met by three different straight spears, beginning a vicious exchange between spearman and dual-wielder versus triple-wielder. There might as well have been a hundred spears in that exchange, going by the sheer amount of impacts per second.
“Guh! It’s like I’m not even here!” complained the Child of Light, finding his prized weapon bluntly pushed away whenever he aimed a thrust. Scathach found her twin spears hooked by a pair of dagger-axes with spear tips. Twisted in opposite directions, they forced the Queen of Shadows to pull her arms open, exposing her chest to attack.
“When did you change them—!?” Scathach chose to retreat, dismissing her weapons and recalling them in an instant back to her hands. To her surprise, Saber had done the exact same thing, conjuring a new pair of spears to resume the clash and keep pressure on Scathach.
“You come at me with spears!? At
Chiyou!? I am the
God of Spears!”
“Then you are the one I must overcome,” a new voice declared from Saber’s left side, just before she felt a tip touching her lower back over the kidney.
“
Shinsou ni no uchi irazu
God Spear, No Second Strike
.”
A shockwave expanded out of Saber’s body, blasting the pond’s water away so it fell like a small tidal wave upon the shore and its many ice crystals.
It was not obvious that Beast Chiyou was being pushed back. For all their advantages—including numbers—, delivering a decisive blow on the Beast proved an impossible ordeal for Diarmuid, Martha and Herakles.
“Damn it!” cursed Saint Martha when Beast grabbed the holy staff. Ignoring the stench of her own burning flesh, Beast abruptly yanked the staff into the path of Gáe Buidhe’s thrust, entangling the weapons together before leaping over the poles to land simultaneous heel drops on Diarmuid’s and Martha’s shoulders. The two Servants howled in agony as the terrible aura devoured their flesh all the way to the body, until they were engulfed by a stream of tendrils that ran across the length of the pond.
Beast quickly shut a leg upwards, striking Herakles’ right wrist to deflect the axe blow that would have split her in two to instead destroy the Yellow Rose of Mortality dropped by its master. Beast lowered her leg faster than Herakles raised his weapon again, planting both feet on the bottom of the pond to bury her elbow on his lower abdomen. The pond-shaking blow only elicited a grunt from the Greek demigod, and Beast leapt between his legs right before the axe split her head like a watermelon, taking the chance to deliver a mule kick to his groin. Back on her feet, she unleashed a veritable swarm of tendrils, annihilating the machinegun and musket fire from Kiritsugu and Nobunaga, and the sword-length arrow fired by EMIYA from across the cavern. With a passing glance to the married swords, Kanshou and Byakuya, spinning in the air in a predatory, circling motion around her, Beast turned her attention to Herakles.
“It doesn’t matter how strong you are, there is nothing in this World I cannot unravel!”
Taking a direct hit from Li Shuwen’s Noble Phantasm, Saber dropped all her weapons. Upon touching the pond, ice instantly spread in every direction as the surface of the pond froze again, trapping the legs of the three Lancers opposing her. Before they could strike at the encroaching cold, it climbed up their bodies, encasing them in prisons of crystalline ice. Everybody standing in the pond suffered the same fate except for Beast.
The smiling Saber turned to Li Shuwen.
“Good job! I almost didn’t see that coming!” She happily praised. “If that wasn’t my own technique, I’d have definitely—whoa!”
Three hands caught three spears. Throughout the refrozen pond, chunks of ice cracked and fell as all Servants except Li Shuwen freed themselves. Martha stood protectively in front of Diarmuid, her staff sparing them from annihilation at Beast’s hand.
“Wow, lots of guys big on
Magic Resistance here,” Saber commented, her hands keeping a tight hold on three Gáe Bolgs. At the same time, a howling Herakles broke out of his huge ice prison. “And that guy’s just hilariously tough. Now, seriously, give me a break!”
Broadswords appeared in her free hands, and a swing of those blades created a blast of wind that flung the two Celtic Lancers across the cavern and into the opposite wall. Saber threw away the three spears left in her hands.
Beast was clearly done underestimating the Greek Berserker. Dodging the first blow with a side-step, then ducking under the rising diagonal slash, her radiance spread like countless spears, or snakes, or even arrows, intercepting EMIYA’s ranged barrage. A second pair of married swords flew in a closer orbit, while the first pair turned sharply in midair towards Beast’s neck.
“Pathetic,” muttered the pale Chiyou, projecting spear-like tendrils to destroy the incoming blades. However, EMIYA’s arrows were faster, striking all four broadswords to abruptly change their direction past the tendrils and on a direct course to strike Beast’s body.
“Twin wings that overcome mountains, part seas, and never fail…”
Beast felt more than perceived a new presence standing behind her. Caught between the newcomer and Greek mythology’s mightiest hero, she quickly chose to dodge the latter.
“
Kakuyoku Sanren
Triple-Linked Crane Wings
”
Chloe von Einzbern immediately knew the attack had failed. The swords in the air and the ones in her hands all broke down into nothing millimeters from Beast’s body. Then a hand grabbed the back of her head and dunked her on the pond. The young girl did not feel her face impacting the floor, what with the aura eating away at her skull.
“Die,” murmured the Beast, right before a flying dagger buried itself to the hilt on Chloe’s left side. And the girl disappeared beneath Beast’s hand, forcefully teleported to Saber’s side.
“Thanks for the save,” hastily murmured the shorter girl, her breathing still heavy upon coming close to annihilation.
“…are you my daughter?”
Chloe’s face went completely flat as she promptly looked up at the other brown girl who, admittedly, looked a little like her.
“Shouldn’t you know that yourself?”
“My clone?”
“No,” replied the alternate Ilyasviel in a somewhat harsh tone.
“A homunculus made using my DNA as a basis?”
“Of course not,” retorted the alter-ego of a homunculus while rolling her eyes.
“An inferior version of me summoned from a different timeline?”
“Wha—no!”
“An inferior version of me summoned by using udon dough as a catalyst?”
“Now that’s just stupid. And stop it with the ‘inferior’ thing.”
Saber Chiyou stared fixatedly at the younger girl, with intensity that made even the likes of Chloe blush.
“…are you…are you
my mommy?”
“What the hell, damn it—wah!?”
A second later, Chloe was being princess-carried by Saber, as the God of War weaved and parried a barrage of crimson tendrils. The spears of vile radiance broke through the refrozen pond and the nearby ice crystals, creating cracks that shattered the slippery surface into countless floating pieces.
“What the fuck is this shit!?” howled the Beast while blasting Herakles away with a gargantuan surge of radiance, spreading in all directions like ravenous lampreys. EMIYA, Hassan of the Cursed Arm and Kiritsugu had to retreat even further, desperately dodging while running across a forest of ice crystals that couldn’t even serve as cover. Siegfried and Brynhildr, who had been on a world of their own this whole time, had to pay attention to the major battle or be swallowed by the crimson light. Herakles dodged attacks with speed unbefitting his great size, his large weapon already a half-eaten thing, with long cracks along what remained of its surface.
“Is there a way to kill that thing?” Chloe asked the other Chiyou.
“Well, powerful holy implements can break through that aura, if that’s what you want to know.”
“Ugh, so we need Artoria—”
“Nah, not really.”
“Why!? Why are all these pests standing on my way!? Why did my red banner fail!?”
“It didn’t fail, you white dumbass,” retorted Saber. “Most of these guys are under the sway of
Banner of Chiyou.”
“Then why!?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Because they’re Servants! They won’t just lose themselves in wanton, primal indulgence! They are greater than that! Their wishes and their urges are stronger than that!”
A new figure dropped from the vertical tunnel, wielding swords in both hands. Beast grunted in annoyance, her aura effortless erasing the weapons from existence. But Beowulf was not deterred, and charged with his bare fists, heedless of the radiance protecting the Beast’s body. At the same time, Cu Chulainn and Scathach were leaping from crystal to crystal, prowling after Saber.
“Those who seek battle, like these two fucking idiots!”
A large figure fell right after Beowulf, his long, scaled tail swaying menacingly. A smaller figure daintily stepped off that tail, tapping Cu Alter’s side in a mild gesture of gratitude for the ride.
“Make that three fucking idiots,” declared a smirking Cu Chulainn Alter.
“The Beast! Attack the Beast!” urged Saber while keeping three Gáe Bolgs at bay. Chloe had already leapt away, seeking a sniping position with EMIYA.
“But you look so much more fun to fight,” countered the Berserker matter-of-factly.
“She is!” agreed the original Hound.
“Goddammit, sometimes I hate being awesome.”
Together with Diarmuid and Herakles, Saint Martha rejoined the fray before Beowulf was overwhelmed. Her healing powers could not undo Beast’s annihilation, so she and Diarmuid had given up on one of their arms each. However, they did not fight warily or cautiously. Diarmuid and Beowulf began to act in concert, using feints and calculated blows to create openings for Martha. Herakles remained a force of nature, relentlessly gunning for everything in his reach.
“Do you see that, sister? There are those whose deepest urge, whose greatest desire, is still striving for righteousness!”
Cu Alter chuckled darkly.
“Yes, yes, I came here for that white one, after all. She is the one who irritates me right now.”
“Hmm, so this is the one.” Shutendouji’s mellifluous voice was as sharp as the great blade in her right hand. “The one who so violated my Ibaraki’s mind, turned her into that unpleasant creature.”
“You, both of you were bathed in my light!” Beast claimed while dancing around Herakles, a whirlwind of tendrils biting at his back and legs. Deflecting Gáe Dearg with the back of her hand, a palm thrust shoved Beowulf into Martha’s path before she could smack Beast with her staff.
“Sister, there are always those who are already completely true to their urges and their desires,” explained Saber. A dozen daggers floated around her, their tips carefully tracking Beast’s position.
Beast decided to break her martial stance, standing straight and defiant as Shuten and Cu Alter slowly approached. Martha, Diarmuid and Beowulf circled carefully, while EMIYA and Chloe pulled identical bows. Herakles cared nothing for Beast’s change in stance, hulking forward with what remained of its massive weapon.
“…fine.”
She did not dodge. She did not need to.
Her all-destroying aura, formerly enveloping her form, twisted and flowed like liquid to meet the incoming weapon, which simply disappeared upon touching the crimson glow in its downward descent. Only the long haft smashed the water’s surface at Beast’s feet, and the pale Chiyou used the curtain of surging water to hide her ferocious counterattack.
“Come, dark poison gnawing at the Root,” she murmured.
The concentrated aura flowed smoothly into her left hand, which effortlessly buried through the Greek demigod’s body. On pulling back, she left a smooth hole where his abdomen had once been. The other Servants halted all thought of attack when Herakles fell on his knees, thus allowing Beast to reaching for his face with her glowing hand. A quick swipe of that hand later, Herakles’ head was no more.
“I was hoping you would crush more maggots for me. Shame,” murmured the pale Beast as the giant collapsed, its body breaking apart into golden motes. Even Cu Chulainn and Scathach stopped attacking Saber to pay attention at the concentrated aura, gathering over Beast’s hand as a tiny bead of light, its color changing from crimson to sunset orange to fiery yellow.
“Is that the true form of her Noble Phantasm?” wondered Scathach.
“Not even close,” replied Saber while dispelling Li Shuwen’s ice prison with a dismissing gesture.
“I will exterminate you all right here,” declared Beast, and the radiant bead fired a finger-thin beam of yellow light Martha barely dodged. The beam chased, and all the Servants found themselves dodging frantically the tiny beam that stretched across the entire cavern.
“Don’t let that thing touch you!” warned Saber right before ducking out of the way. Right after that, she fired her floating daggers, which Beast easily deflected with the back of her hands. As they fell powerlessly on the pond, mist poured out of the blades, quickly filling the cavern in obscurity. The radiant bead released even more beam, half a dozen in total eating away at the mist almost as quickly as it was released. Saber easily countered by launching more mist-making daggers.
“Go!” shouted the dark-skinned Chiyou. Beast promptly recalled the beams, allowing the bead to orbit her body, ready to intercept incoming attacks. She caught two sets of footsteps, one approaching quickly but very silently, the second leaping on the floating pieces of ice as if weightless.
The bead spread again, enveloping Beast Chiyou like a second skin.
“Hell starts from here. We are flames, rain, power…let there be a slaughter.”
“Ushiwakamaru and Jack the Ripper,” concluded Beast. “Hmph, foolish. Your Noble Phantasms can’t hurt me, so come and meet your pathetic end!”
“
Maria the Ripper
Holy Mother of Dismemberment
”
“
Dan-no-ura Hassou Tobi
Jumping the Eight Ships at Dan-no-ura
”
The sounds of blades break through flesh. Silence. And then, a scream.
Ushiwakamaru and Jack hastily retreated as the aura went berserk in its attempt at tearing them apart, with Saber provided ranged support. Beast was howling, screaming in utter agony. Her long nails scratched her neck in mad desperation, as the many wounds throughout her body released an unsettling, acrid smoke. From almost any other person, those sounds of unfathomable pain would have elicited pity.
“What! What! What have you done to me!?” Beast shouted between almost-feral howls. “What is this—why does it hurt so much!? How did they even—!?”
The answer was obvious, but Beast was in too much pain to think clearly.
“Why do you think I haven’t been firing weapons by the hundreds like before?”
“You gave them…holy weapons…!? When did you…!? You’d need…a full…incantation…!”
Saber offhandedly pointed at the ceiling.
“I had enough time up there. Herakles did a great job keeping you entertained, such a great guy. A shame about the madness.”
Jack arrived at Saber’s side, and was rewarded with some pats on the head.
“We did as you told us, but Beast didn’t die.”
“Nah, nah, you did great! Damn, I never had a daughter, but I ‘d love to have one just like you!”
“But we already have a Mother.”
“That’s fine, I can be a daddy too!”
“Uhh…”
Nobunaga had tried her luck, but the aura still stood unbreakable, protecting the pained Beast from all musket fire. Seemingly coming to terms with the pain, Beast stood straight once more.
“The end of all things! The shattering of all laws!”
The aura contracted again into a tiny bead, its yellow radiance shifting to green and then to a pale blue.
“That was a mistake,” declared Saber an instant before a great black sword pierced Beast back to front. The pale Chiyou gasped, looking down at the offending weapon and then behind her, where she was darkness and blue flame.
“Y-You…”
“You forgot, sister,” declared Saber Chiyou. “There are also those rare ones completely devoid of urges and personal desires.”
Beast laughed, but what came out was a wet cough that spat on the Old Man of the Mountain’s armor.
“Not even you…can kill me.”
“Thou art not what I have killed.”
Beast burst into unnatural flame, tongues of blue, green and gold pouring out of her pores and her mouth. She does not scream like the damage from the holy weapons; instead she gasps, coughs and chokes while she tumbles across the freezing cold pond.
“What…what…” the words barely manage to wheeze out of her burning lips.
“I have killed that which allowed you to exist in that form.”
“No…my…Cornucopia…”
Less than a minute later, a burned down, defeated Assassin Chiyou fell on hands and knees, gasping heavily and moaning in lamentation. Saber closed the distance, conjuring a single straight sword, shining with holy power.
“Not fair…I just…I just wanted…”
“I would never deny that wish. As Chiyou, I feel proud of your drive to excel. But you chose the wrong path. A path unviable for Chiyou.”
“Kuh!”
Slowly, clumsily, Assassin Chiyou got back on her feet, to face her end with dignity befitting her exalted name.
“One day,” she murmured, loud enough for Saber to hear. “One day, I will surpass you.”
Saber smiled warmly.
“Bring it on. Take a break, think a little harder, and then give it another try. I’ll take you on whenever you’re ready.”
The sword pierced the center of her chest. With a brief, mocking laugh, Assassin ceased to exist.
Saber sighed, dismissing the holy blade.
“Alright, that’s the end of that. And I didn’t even have to use Excalibur! Awesome. Good job everyone, that was pretty great!”
She stretched her arms while turning to face Chaldea’s Servants. Then she noticed the way some of them were looking at her. Some like Scathach, Cu Chulainn and Cu Alter, Nobunaga, Beowulf and Li Shuwen.
“Ah, right, right; now that she’s gone, you’re already looking for the next opponent to fight. Gods, what a hassle. And that creepy Old Man’s already gone,
of course. Well, nothing a few smacks on the head won’t solve—”
A silver meteor fell in the middle of the pond. A rainbow sword cut though the wall of water raised by the impact, revealing the lithe form of the King of Combat, staring fixatedly at the God of War.
“…I might grow to really like this place. Alright, bring it on, bitches!” called out Chiyou while conjuring a variety of bludgeoning weapons to her hands. “I’ll beat sense back to you, literally! Come on!”
And the battle started anew.
***********************
Ushiwakamaru and Jack the Reaper had made their way back up the vertical tunnel the moment Assassin Chiyou was slain. Their mission was accomplished, so they left to claim their just reward.
For their brave actions against Beast Chiyou, many, many headpats.
Together with his sizeable escort—Jeanne d’Arc, Jeanne Alter, Naamah Alter and da Vinci—, the Master of Chaldea peered over the chasm leading to the vertical tunnel. The sounds of intense battle and boisterous laughter mixed together into a resounding echo.
“Looks like your new Servant’s going to fit it just fine,” decided da Vinci.
“I just hope she can really fix all the people afflicted by
Banner of Chiyou.”
“Is she fighting on her own down there? Will she not be killed first?” worriedly pondered the Ruler d’Arc.
“She’s invincible against armed opponents. I think she’ll be fine,” replied the young Master.
“Um, they’ll figure that out quickly enough, and most of them can fight just fine without weapons, you know?”
As if waiting for Jeanne Alter’s comment, the combined sound of many weapons being dropped on the pond reached their ears.
“OHSHI—” Saber Chiyou’s ominously—and fortuitously—loud voice.
The Master and his Servants glanced at other.
“…go help her.”
The two Maids of Orleans leapt together. Ushiwaka and Jack followed right after.
“You know,” idly commented the Master as he caught hearing of Ozymandias’ solar barge approaching to land. “It feels like I really didn’t do much of anything this time.”
“Mah, mah, it was not really your story this time around, Master” Naamah Alter smoothly and elegantly took Jeanne’s place to the right and a step behind the young man.
“It was the simple story of a pitiful girl taking responsibility for her deeds.”
Originally Posted by Bird of Hermes
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